“It appears that too many staffers echo the excuses of their bosses who so nonchalantly cast American principles aside to follow a political agenda that is simply a road map to their reelections, a road-map that is leading our country over a cliff,” Wendy Doromal said on her “Unheard No More” blogsite.
She said it is “much easier to get a member of Congress or staffers to respect and listen to you if you are a lobbyist who can offer pockets full of money to fill campaign coffers, rather than a poor and lowly human rights advocate who can only offer facts and plead for help. Most do not want to hear from advocates because taking a moral, ethical and just stand may represent a major detour in their roadmaps to reelection, or may require that they put aside their self-serving political agendas to advance the public good.”
She said although “many agree that the legal, long-term foreign workers should be given permanent residency status, [they] make political excuses, such as Congress is presently dysfunctional, or such action would not be politically advantageous for them to introduce such legislation.”
Doromal also conceded that the Obama administration “clearly does not want to take a firm position or move to push Congress to follow the intent of the” federalization law, referring to the U.S. Department of the Interior’s recommendation to Congress to pass legislation that would grant improved immigration status to qualified nonresidents in the CNMI.
No such bill has been introduced since Interior made the recommendation in spring of 2010.
Doromal is also disappointed with members of the Hispanic, Asian American, Black and Progressive Caucuses, “who support comprehensive immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship for 11 million undocumented (illegal) aliens” but are not supporting “the same for a mere 16,000 legal, long-term foreign resident workers….”
She added, “It appears that their rhetoric may be political and self-serving, and not truly based on humane or righteous ideals.”
Doromal also tried to persuade Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan, Ind.-MP who is aligned with U.S. Democrats, to amend his bill, H.R. 1466, which will grant CNMI-only status to certain nonresidents, including those with U.S. citizen children.
Doromal wants the bill to cover all long-term guest workers.
But she said Sablan “wants the foreign workers to leave so that the unemployed U.S. citizens can take their jobs.”
She added, “I understand that he will not do what I consider to be morally right…. His political reasons may be valid, but my stand is that you never know until you try, and moral trumps political [reasons].”
Doromal admitted that “we cannot expect the ‘immigration champions’ or the other Democrat co-sponsors to move to amend [Sablan’s] bill even though they support a pathway to citizenship for millions of illegal aliens. The policy is to defer (apparently blindly) to the member of Congress whose district is affected by the bill.”
After this meeting, she added, “I was overwhelmed with sadness. I once believed that Congressman Sablan at least respected and appreciated the contributions of the foreign workers and their families. I am not so sure that is true anymore, which is depressing. While I disagree with his opinions, I believe that he is sincere in believing that he is doing what is best for the voters and their families. It is unfortunate and shocking that there is a place on U.S. soil in 2011 where at least half, or maybe even a majority, of the voting age population is disenfranchised and unrepresented.”
In an email to Variety, Doromal said: “Too many of the current members of the U.S. Congress are more interested in their reelection and self-serving political agendas than in putting partisan and divisive political agendas aside to do their jobs and advance the best interests of the American people.”
She insists that this issue “should be rooted in moral, just and democratic ideals, and not be merely political in nature.”
Next month, the Florida-based advocate will again visit Washington, D.C. for follow-up meetings with officials and reporters.
“This last trip to Washington was special for me because I was joined in my advocacy efforts by Rabby Syed, president of the United Workers Movement,” she said. “I am sure his presence impressed upon officials the importance of this issue, since a leader of the guest workers flew half way around the world to address the workers’ concerns. Rabby was an articulate and dedicated spokesperson for the alien workers.”
