Their proposed meeting in Washington, D.C. is already being arranged.
“The issue on federalization will be paramount because I still strongly believe that federal policies will continue to haunt the CNMI economy. I will be seeing the president,” Fitial told Variety.
He returned from Pohnpei over the weekend after attending the Micronesian Chief Executives Summit held there.
The governor said he also plans to meet the new secretary of Department of Homeland Security, which will administer the federalization of the islands’ immigration system beginning on June 1, 2009.
Obama is set to appoint Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano to succeed Michael Chertoff as DHS secretary.
Napolitano, 50, is a former federal prosecutor, state attorney general and twice-elected governor of Arizona.
A breast-cancer survivor, she set career records for vetoes as she battled with the Republican-led state legislature over spending and illegal immigration, the AP reported.
In her first term, she resisted initial efforts on a state crackdown on illegal immigration, instead taking the position that immigration and border security are federal responsibilities, the AP added.
Fitial has filed a lawsuit to prevent the implementation of the federalization law.
Press Secretary Charles P. Reyes Jr. said the administration will ask Obama to respect the CNMI’s local democratic process and the islands’ right to self-government.
