“I cannot disclose that yet because I still owe more people some more consultation,” he told Variety in an interview on Friday.
The administration has retained Jenner & Block LLP and said that the private sector is funding the initial phase of the lawsuit.
Five prominent people — two in the business sector, two government lawyers and the governor himself — have contributed money to pay Jenner & Block.
Press Secretary Charles Reyes Jr. said the identities of the four other “financiers” are protected by the “attorney-client privilege” rule.
“If it’s public financing then it has to be disclosed,” he said in a phone interview yesterday.
The governor’s special legal counsel, Howard P. Willens, drafted the CNMI’s lawsuit which is expected to be filed in the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia.
“I think the governor made it clear that he’s trying to protect the economic interest of the CNMI,” said Reyes.
He said the administration believes that the federalization of local immigration is designed to get rid of foreign workers within a five-year period or by 2014.
According to Reyes, the administration’s analysis indicates a 20 to 30 percent reduction every year within the next five years of the foreign workers’ population.
He said this will further shrink the domestic market of the islands.
The Northern Marianas hosts some 19,000 foreign workers —mostly from the Philippines and China — who are all employed by the private sector.
