Since 1995, the islands have been identified with national Republican leaders who helped blocked the federalization of local immigration until the Democrats took over Congress after the 2006 elections.
Fitial, a former local Republican Party chairman and supporter of disgraced Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff, said he’s ready to work with the Democratic candidate Barak Obama, who is on the verge of becoming the nation’s first African-American president.
“Everything concerning the federal government is important to us,” Fitial said. “I have no problem with [an Obama victory] because I’m a Covenant. I cannot say that I am a Republican or a Democrat.”
In a separate interview, Press Secretary Charles P. Reyes Jr. said because the U.S. president has so much authority over insular areas like the Northern Marianas, the administration is monitoring the presidential election on Wednesday, local time.
“Past U.S. presidents, for example, have exerted far reaching influences on the lives of our island residents,” Reyes said.
“Some examples included President Gerald Ford, who approved our Covenant with the United States; President Ronald Reagan, who granted U.S. citizenship to NMI residents; and current President Bush, who approved the federalization [of local minimum wage and immigration] and who may also impose a marine monument without our consent.”
Under U.S. Public Law 110-229, which was passed by the Democratic Congress and approved by the Republican White House, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will run the CNMI immigration system starting in June next year.
The governor has filed a lawsuit in a federal court in Washington, D.C. to challenge the law’s labor provisions, saying that they would phase out CNMI guest workers by 2014.
Reyes said the CNMI would want to work with whoever wins the presidential election.
“Our hopes and expectations would be the same regardless of whether Obama or McCain wins the election,” he said.
“We would want a president who is genuinely aware of and concerned for the economic needs of our islands. We would want a president committed to carrying out the intent of our Covenant, who respects our local democratic process as well as our local self-government and economic aspirations.”
