Michael Aytes told the Variety that unless there are compelling new information that can convince Homeland Security to include China and Russia in the Guam-CNMI visa waiver program, their citizens will be required to get a U.S. visa to enter Marianas as tourists.
“That’s already been decided,” said Aytes.
Guam and Northern Marianas strongly lobbied for the inclusion of China and Russia.
“Homeland Security anticipated that there would be a strong support to include Russia and China in the visa waiver program and looked at that and made a decision initially,” Aytes said. “So there would have to be some compelling new information that would convince us to change our minds on that score.”
He added, “It’s not just security concerns but concerns with regards to looking at trends and whether or not those people would comply with the law.”
Aytes said fighting global terrorism and protecting innocent lives remain the key goals of Homeland Security.
Securing key military areas like the Marianas is a must, he added.
“Homeland Security exists because there is a very significant concern with regards to terrorism. People are coming into the United States to engage in acts that would threaten the safety of people who live [in our nation],” he said.
Citizenship and Immigration Services Regional Director David Gulick said there is also a concern about repatriation.
He said the U.S. is very careful with the visa waiver program because there have been instances when certain countries don’t want to take back their citizens who committed crimes in America.
“Sometimes people commit crimes. Some countries say, ‘That’s too bad. But we don’t want them here either,’ ” he said.
Gov. Benigno R. Fitial said the inclusion of Russia and China in the visa waiver program is crucial to the survival of the islands’ tourism industry.
Without them the islands would lose about $200 million in potential economic activities annually, he said.
