Tenorio, Covenant-Saipan, said U.S. Republicans will again dominate the U.S. Congress in the next few years.
And when they do, the CNMI can lobby to regain control over its immigration system that was taken away when U.S. P.L. 110-229 was enacted three years ago. U.S. Democrats controlled both houses of Congress at that time, but it was a Republican president, George W. Bush, who signed the law.
Tenorio recalled that when he was the CNMI governor, both houses of the U.S. Congress were controlled by Republicans who opposed then-President Bill Clinton’s proposal to federalize local immigration.
Back then, he said, the U.S. Democrats were trying to end local immigration control.
Tenorio, a local Democrat at that time, said it seemed to him that the U.S. Democrats “hated us.”
So he hired Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff who, Tenorio said, succeeded in blocking federalization legislation in the U.S. Congress.
The former governor noted that after winning control of Congress in 2007, the U.S. Democrats revived the federalization bill which was eventually passed.
But Tenorio said, soon, the Republicans will take over the U.S. Congress again and the CNMI government can ask them “to give us back immigration control.”
Tenorio at the same time expressed disappointment with the congressional delegates of American Samoa and the U.S. Virgin Islands for co-sponsoring bills involving the CNMI.
He said the CNMI people do not tell American Samoa and the U.S. Virgin Islands what kind of immigration policy they should have “so they should not get involved in the matters that affect the CNMI.”
