In a supplemental statement submitted on June 2 to the U.S. Subcommittee on Insular Areas, Oceans and Wildlife chaired by Guam Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo, Fitial said he was disappointed by Dr. Richard Barth’s statement regarding the exclusion of China and Russia on the Guam-CNMI Visa Waiver Program.
According to Fitial, Barth suggested that DHS might change its current position regarding the inclusion of the two countries if DHS, “could feel comfortable that there would be no onward leakage if you will to Hawaii or any other port into the other ports of the 50 U.S. states.”
“The commonwealth believes that this statement reflects a serious misunderstanding regarding the commonwealth’s border protection system…. Under the commonwealth’s procedures, no ‘leakage’ has occurred (or could occur) into the 50 states by aliens admitted into the commonwealth. The commonwealth’s immigration system is totally isolated from the U.S. Mainland and Hawaii,” said Fitial.
DHS excluded Russia and China on the list of 15 privileged countries whose citizens are free to enter and stay on the Marianas territories under the Guam-CNMI VWP scheduled to be implemented on Nov. 28.
The decision was largely based on security and law enforcement concerns on the two countries.
But Guam and the CNMI argued excluding Russian and Chinese tourists on the VWP would mean millions of losses for their fragile tourism-based economies.
Fitial said there is no way Russian and Chinese tourists can sneak into the U.S. mainland without being detected because all persons entering and exiting the commonwealth are checked.
Past records, however, showed some Chinese citizens tried to sneak into Guam using motorized boats and using as entry points other islands in the CNMI like Tinian and Rota.
Nonetheless, Fitial stressed that “no one can travel from the commonwealth to the United States without a passport and visa that meet United States standards.”
“Everyone who travels from the commonwealth must enter via a port in the United States controlled by the Department of Homeland Security,” he said.
“Guam is the only U.S. jurisdiction to which persons from the commonwealth can fly by direct, nonstop service and the existing immigration controls enforced there by the Department of Homeland Security, both with respect to entry and exit, provide further and redundant assurances that no alien leaving the commonwealth can gain illegal entry into the United States,” he added.
The subcommittee is expected to decide soon on the territories request to further delay for at least a year the implementation date of the federalization law.
This law mandates the DHS to take over control of the commonwealth’s immigration system as well as implement the Guam-CNMI VWP.
