While here they inspected garment factories and met some of the nonresident workers with pending labor abuse cases, including a group of former Bangladeshi security guards who had not been paid for their work. They were jobless and living in squalor. The senators were appalled. Despite Jack Abramoff’s lobbying efforts, the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate sided with the Democratic White House and passed by unanimous consent Murkowski’s federal takeover legislation. (Abramoff, through Tom DeLay and Don Young, “killed” the bill in the U.S. House.) After hearing the justifications and pleadings of the CNMI government that was in the pocket of the garment industry, Murkowski said: “The last time we heard a justification that economic advances would be jeopardized if workers were treated properly was shortly before Appomattox.”
There it was. The comparison to America’s slaves was just begging to be made.
It’s already the second decade of a new century, but we can still hear well-meaning, intelligent advocates depicting the CNMI’s unique labor situation as “slavery.” They also believe that the “struggle” for improved status is similar to the civil rights movement on the mainland.
The advocates have been outraged by the “unfairness” of the CNMI’s labor and immigration system since the late 1980’s. What they saw and still see here is intolerable. Hence, their heated, passionate rhetoric which, sadly, does not help anyone, especially the nonresidents in the CNMI.
There is no slavery in the CNMI. No one is being bought and sold here. Foreign workers are not American citizens who are being denied their rights because of the color of their skin. There are no lynchings here. Peaceful protesters have not been tear-gassed, water-cannoned or assaulted with truncheons by local authorities. No one is in chains.
What we have here are thousands of supposedly temporary foreign workers who have been allowed by law to stay in the CNMI for years or decades, and many of them have families now, including children with U.S. passports.
True, some of the foreign workers have not been paid in full by their employers. Unlike slaves, however, they can, and they did, file complaints. They got into bad if not fraudulent contracts with unethical people, but there’s nothing special about such cases, which happen just about anywhere, even in the states.
Advocates believe that long-term foreign workers are entitled to improved status. That’s a reasonable opinion. But under current federal law, it’s not going to happen. The U.S. Congress must pass legislation for improved status. Foreign workers and their advocates are free to lobby U.S. lawmakers, and they have been doing so. Those opposed to improved status can also lobby against it. That’s how democracy works.
After assessing the political conditions in the U.S. and the CNMI, a local politician has stepped up to the plate and offered what is basically a compromise measure: CNMI-status only for certain nonresidents, including those with U.S. citizen children. Strictly speaking, it’s not improved status, but an extension of these foreign workers’ authorization to work here. If they think it’s not enough or is “unjust,” then they can leave the commonwealth.
Unlike Interior’s improved immigration proposals, which the U.S. Congress has practically ignored, Kilili’s bill has gained bipartisan support in D.C. and even from other local politicians and local residents. That is an amazing political feat. Kilili, of course, can introduce improved status for all foreigners in the CNMI. But such a bill will be demagogued to death by the governor and his minions. One of the CNMI’s few good public officials could lose his seat, resulting in more “uncertainty” for employers and their foreign workers who, if you ask them, will tell you that all they want is to continue working on this beautiful and peaceful island.
Foreign workers in the CNMI are free men and women protected by federal and commonwealth laws. They have access to the authorities, including their nation’s consulates. They are free to choose where to work and free to leave. Clearly, almost all of them want to remain here.
Kilili’s bill aims to keep families together while ensuring that the private sector — which funds the bloated salaries of government employees — will continue to have a reliable, experienced workforce.
Right now, there is no constituency for even a CNMI-only status for all nonresidents. That is the political reality at the moment. But like everything, it can and will change. And when it does, more local politicians will try to do what must be done.
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