MINORITY bloc Sens. Paul A. Manglona and Sen. Edith Deleon Guerrero last week met with U.S. Customs and Border Protection CNMI Ports Director Jeff Hofschneider to discuss the pre-clearance of departing passengers from Rota to Guam.
The senators said although CBP has been very generous in foregoing personnel overtime cost and other charges to the CNMI, they are concerned about the additional financial burden of flying a CBP officer to Rota for the pre-clearance process.
The passengers are the ones who will ultimately absorb additional costs, the senators said.
CBP now requires the presence of a CBP officer on Rota for the pre-clearance of departing passengers from Rota to Guam. This requirement was implemented with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the senators learned.
They said Hofschneider told them that presently, CBP has an arrangement with SMA to operate charter flights directly to Guam from Rota by flying a Saipan-based CBP officer to Rota to conduct the flight preclearance process.
Hofschneider said this understanding between CBP and SMA can be expanded to allow SMA to immediately begin flying daily direct flights to Guam.
But this will mean that SMA will be flying a CBP officer on a daily basis to and from Rota, the senators said. The cost would be passed on to passengers, they added.
Manglona and Deleon Guerrero asked CBP to consider an alternative accommodation such as virtual preclearance.
But the senators said CBP told them that even before the pandemic, CBP was already in the process of implementing the new requirement due to concerns regarding “inconsistent enforcement” of immigration rules during the airline boarding process in the past.
“It is our hope that we can work out an agreement with [the Marianas Visitors Authority] and [the Commonwealth Ports Authority] so that this additional passenger preclearance expense can be shouldered by the CNMI. In the future, as our economy and tourism industry rebound, CBP will be in a better position to justify additional personnel on Rota, the cost of which is approximately $400,000,” Manglona and Deleon Guerrero said in a joint statement to Variety.
They said SMA’s flight service between Rota and Guam “has provided our residents, in addition to U.S. mainland and international destination transit flight passengers, a greater opportunity for medical care, education, and access to affordable commodities on Guam.”
However, they added, the flight service was suspended as a result of the pandemic.
“This resulted in a huge financial burden on our people, with the additional expense of having to travel from Guam to Saipan then Rota. This meeting [with CBP] is the first step to finding a solution to alleviate this financial burden and extra hurdle for our people to travel directly to Guam from Rota. In spite of this obstacle, we appreciate the efforts and protection that CBP is providing our Commonwealth,” Senators Manglona and Deleon Guerrero added.
Paul Manglona
Edith Deleon Guerrero
