“I don’t like what the feds have done, but the Covenant is clear — they can take over immigration,” former Gov. Froilan C. Tenorio said in an interview on Friday.
According to Section 503 of the Covenant, which created the CNMI and made it part of the U.S., federal immigration law “will not apply to the Northern Mariana Islands except in the manner and to the extent made applicable to them by the Congress by law….”
Passed by the U.S. Congress in April, the federalization law was signed by President Bush on May 8, or almost 11 years after then-President Bill Clinton informed Tenorio that the White House would ask the U.S. Congress to extend federal immigration and labor laws to CNMI because of “continuing, disturbing labor, immigration, and law enforcement practices” that were inconsistent with American policies and values.
The federalization law is “too broad,” said Tenorio, who, in 1997, succeeded in fending off Clinton’s federalization proposal by aligning the CNMI with the U.S. House Republicans then led by Speaker Newt Gingrich, Majority Leader Richard Armey and Majority Whip Tom DeLay.
“Why does it include labor provisions?” Tenorio asked, referring to the federalization law. “But again, it’s a done deal and I think suing the feds will just be a waste of money.”
The Fitial administration believes that the federalization law will be “disastrous” to the economy and has asked lawmakers to appropriate at least $400,000 for the planned lawsuit.
But the CNMI House leadership said public funds should not be used for the lawsuit.
“The leadership is not convinced that we should spend time and money on this issue because we have a bigger crisis on our hand,” Speaker Arnold I. Palacios, R-Saipan, said in an interview on Thursday.
