Pepero to Cohen: ‘We’re no backsliders’

Lt. Gov. Jesus R. Sablan, head of the CNMI 902 panel, yesterday said labor and immigration reforms will continue with or without the takeover, as he made a pitch against his U.S. counterpart, Edward Cohen, for pushing again the federalization of these local functions.

“I respect Mr. Cohen’s opinion,” Mr. Sablan said, “But to say that we have backslided is unfair.”

According to the lieutenant governor, Mr. Cohen should give the CNMI a chance to implement the package of reforms it has put in place to address federal concerns without imposing a deadline.

“You have to give the reforms some time to take place. Reform is a continuing process. Now is the time to give these reforms a chance to work,” he explained.

Mr. Cohen, who was on Saipan last January for the resumption of the 902 talks, last week endorsed a report containing the Clinton administration’s fresh bid to extend federal laws to the Commonwealth on immigration, minimum wage and Headnote 3(a).

The move he claimed he reluctantly proposed to the president was prompted by alleged failure by the island government to commit to much-needed reforms it had promised to implement.

Chief among them were the exemptions granted to businesses from the hiring ban on foreign workers imposed last year in the CNMI as well as the failure by a local wage review board to propose increase in the island’s minimum wage level.

Mr. Cohen also maintained that since meeting with local officials during the 902 talks held on Saipan earlier this year, the CNMI government has “not continued” efforts to curb labor abuses here and stem influx of nonresident workers.

But CNMI leaders shrugged off his proposal as they noted that even if they carry out the reforms, Mr. Clinton has already set his mind to pursue the federal takeover agenda he broached as early as 1997.

Mr. Cohen held discussion last January with the CNMI panel in the resumption of the 902 talks — held last in 1993 — to try to bridge differences on the island’s handling of its labor and immigration.

Both sides, however, failed to agree on these issues, and the White House’s special emissary sent last May to Mr. Sablan a package of proposals outlining steps to strip CNMI’s authority over immigration, minimum wage and custom policies.

Two years ago, Mr. Clinton also proposed to Congress full application of U.S. laws on these issues, but that legislation did not win support from Republican leaders from the House of Representatives.

Island officials are hoping to drum up support from their friends in Washington to quell this latest proposal which is one of half-a-dozen bills pending in Congress concerning the CNMI.

A separate measure offered by Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska) seeking extension of U.S. immigration laws to the island will be up for voting in the next few months after the panel endorsed the bipartisan legislation.

The federal takeover agenda of the Clinton administration have consistently drawn protests by CNMI leaders who say such a plan will spell economic collapse and return to U.S. doleouts because of the limited labor force and resources on the island. (BS)