In an interview yesterday, Press Secretary Angel A. Demapan said the administration had yet to see H.R. 1466 in its entirety.
Introduced on April 8, H.R. 1466 proposes to grant CNMI-only residents status to nonresidents married to U.S. citizens; those who were granted permanent residency by the commonwealth; the 92 people born here between Jan. 4, 1974 and Jan. 9, 1978; and nonresidents who become immediate relatives of U.S. citizens as May 8, 2008 “notwithstanding the age” of those U.S. citizens — these are the parents of U.S. citizen children.
“We would like to wholly review the bill’s intent and provisions to see whether areas of concerns such as job opportunities, health and infrastructure needs will be adequately addressed,” Demapan said.
Under Sablan’s bill, CNMI permanent residents can only travel to the U.S. and other territories if they have the required U.S. visa.
Some members of the local community who requested anonymity fear that the nonresidents granted CNMI permanent residency will eventually become voters.
Rep. Stanley T. Torres, in a separate interview, said he supports Sablan’s bill.
“I have no problem with that. We need to consider those children born here,” he said.
The parents, he added, should be allowed to stay in the CNMI to take care of their U.S. citizen children.
“Just because their parents are not U.S. citizen, it’s not right that these children will be forced to change their lives once their parents bring them to their countries of origin,” said Torres, Ind.-Saipan.
He said he supports the idea of keeping families together.
