ATTORNEY General Robert T. Torres believes that H.B. 13-49, or the Illegal Alien Detection and Apprehension Amendments of 2002, may “not survive constitutional scrutiny” in its current form.
In an April 15 letter to Rep. Herman T. Palacios, R-Saipan and chairman of the House Subcommittee on Labor and Immigration, Torres said the measure may “infringe on the commonwealth and the United States’s Fourth Amendment right to be free from unlawful search and seizure.”
The bill intends to provide stricter enforcement measures for the Department of Labor and Immigration so that labor and immigration officers will have the power to conduct a limited number of investigations and searches without obtaining a search warrant.
It also intends to provide immigration officials with greater ability to interview people suspected of being illegal aliens and allow labor officials to enter places to prevent labor abuses.
“While the intent of the bill is understandable, it is still faced with the difficulties which prompted the District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands to invalidate (sections of the code that infringe the rights of individuals),” Torres said.
He said Commonwealth Codes 3 CMC 4381 and 3 CMC 4442 were declared unconstitutional in the case of Ariel Gorromeo v. Mark D. Zachares et. al.
“This case has recently returned to the District Court for the NMI where it is being litigated…. I believe that it would be very harmful to the ongoing settlement discussions as well as the pending case if this bill were to be passed before the end of the case,” Torres said.
