The U.S. Department of Homeland Security would administer the existing CNMI visa waiver program, allowing Russian and Chinese tourists to enter the commonwealth without obtaining a visa in advance of arrival.
“I believe that it is necessary to have a number of options on the table,” said Sablan. “A complete delay of U.S. Public Law 110-229 is certainly called for if the Department of Homeland Security is not adequately prepared to assume its responsibilities at the border Nov. 28.
“If the department is ready, however, or ready enough that it is not possible to win the argument for a complete delay, then we have to have some other alternative legislation that will allow the commonwealth economy to continue to benefit from Russian and Chinese tourists.
“And that’s what my bill, H.R. 3658, will do: keep Russians and Chinese coming to vacation here just as they have for years without any serious problem or security risk.
“I am open to compromise and negotiation on this issue; and I think my new bill will facilitate discussion.”
Last week, Sablan met with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who told him DHS would be ready to take responsibility for the borders as scheduled.
She also told the congressman that she understood the economic importance of tourists from Russia and China.
“I get it,” Napolitano told Sablan.
But she could do nothing to change the interim final rule published in January that excludes Russians and Chinese.
Rather she spoke of a “creative pathway,” which she suggested could keep the Russians and Chinese coming even after Nov. 28.
“On Friday I again met with Homeland Security officials,” Sablan reports, “including Dr. Richard Barth, who has been one of the lead people on Northern Marianas immigration. But these officials were unable to say exactly when we could see, or describe in any way this ‘creative pathway’ the secretary promised.
“This uncertainty about what DHS could do or was willing to do, prompted me to introduce a bill that would accomplish exactly what Secretary Napolitano seemed to want: to keep the Russians and Chinese coming to the NMI.”
H.R. 3658 also addresses Sablan’s concerns about two groups of CNMI residents, who were not considered by the drafters of U.S. Public Law 110-229.
Sablan’s bill gives immediate relatives of U.S. citizens —persons married to U.S. citizens or parents of children who are U.S. citizens because they were born here — the right to reside in the Northern Marianas for a full five years.
Persons who are CNMI permanent residents would have the same right to stay until 2014.
Both groups could work and come and go from the commonwealth without the need for any further permission or visa from the United States.
“These people are our neighbors, our friends, our relatives in many cases,” said Sablan. “We have to make sure that they can continue to live and work in the Northern Marianas, just as they always have. This is their home.”
CNMI permanent residents are persons who have lived in the commonwealth since at least 1981.
At the end of the five-year period parents of U.S. citizen children would be eligible for U.S. citizenship even if their children were still too young to petition for their parents to become citizens. Normally children must be 21 years old to make this petition.
Persons with CNMI permanent resident status could, at the end of the five years, obtain U.S. permanent resident status.
The bill also takes note of the lower incomes in the Northern Marianas as compared to the rest of the United States. Fees for applications for U.S. citizenship by immediate relatives would be lowered and the minimum income requirements for these families would be waived.
