Press Secretary Charles P. Reyes Jr. yesterday told the Variety that the governor held another closed-door meeting with lawmakers to convince them to appropriate public funds for the lawsuit.
During the cabinet meeting yesterday, the governor noted that “all prior attempts to negotiate with the federal government have failed.”
He added, “There is no price tag for local self-government. We’ve exhausted all discussions with the federal government.”
According to Reyes, there are certain provisions in the federalization law that cannot be negotiated with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which will administer the CNMI immigration system starting next year.
“DHS cannot negotiate on certain points embedded in the law. For example, the provision about the foreign labor force to go zero by 2014,” he said.
Attorney General Matthew Gregory told the governor that the CNMI can sue the U.S. government, Reyes noted.
“He said it’s very American to sue the [federal] government,” Reyes quoted Gregory as saying during the cabinet meeting.
But the House leadership is not convinced that negotiation is futile.
Speaker Arnold I. Palacios, R-Saipan, reiterated the House leadership’s position that taxpayers’ money should not be used for the lawsuit, which the administration estimated to last up to eight months, but some believe may drag on indefinitely.
The governor wants to ask the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to grant the CNMI a preliminary injunction preventing the implementation of the federalization law next year.
Reyes said the governor needs the Legislature’s concurrence to appropriate funding for the lawsuit because his power to reprogram funds has been clipped in the amended budget.
“It’s not clear yet [where the money will be sourced for the legal fees],” Reyes said.
