No one was available to answer the phones.
A call to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Department of Homeland Security office at the airport was answered, but this reporter was informed that the office had nothing to do with the other offices and could not comment.
A subsequent call to Carlotta Leon Guerrero, chief of staff to Lt. Gov. Mike Cruz, revealed that Leon Guerrero also had difficulty in contacting U.S. immigration authorities.
Leon Guerrero said she finally did speak with Immigration and Customs Enforcement official Rocky Minor who informed her that he had not yet received any information about the matter.
Leon Guerrero said she apprised Minor of the situation and provided him with a copy of the letter that CNMI Congressman Gregorio C. Sablan wrote to U.S. Homeland Secretary Janet Napolitano.
“I don’t expect a response to me,” Leon Guerrero said, “but, I do expect some kind of response to be made to the governor and other officials.”
Some U.S. citizens and green card holders from the CNMI have said that they were detained for questioning by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement staff at the A. B. Won Pat International Airport.
Recent reports from CNMI travelers point to a pattern of increasing hostility and harassment by immigration officers posted here. Sablan, in his letter to Napolitano, said travelers from the CNMI are singled out for negative treatment.
He said “any such negative treatment should immediately stop.”
Sablan wants Homeland Security to investigate the complaints.
