Lawmaker confident safe haven regs wouldn’t be adopted

Sen. Pete P. Reyes expressed confidence yesterday that Deputy Attorney General Clyde Lemons would fairly consider the support and opposition received by the proposed safe haven regulations.

Reyes, who had personally attacked Attorney General Pamela S. Brown for her previous involvement in the proposed regulations, said Lemons has his support.

“I’m quite confident that he (Lemons) is going to be fair…that he will take a look at the people objecting to the regulations and the people supporting them. I believe he’s going to listen to the public,” Reyes said.

According to Brown, she delegated Lemons to handle the safe haven regulations because she did not want Reyes’ attacks on her to affect the project, which she believes is very important.

“I do not want this project mired in the mud slinging that typifies Sen. Reyes’ hatred of me, personally,” Brown had said.

Reyes, who raised discussion on the safe have project by bringing it out in the public, also said he expected people to pour into the public hearing scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 29, 2005.

“I expect that the regulations will end up not being adopted,” he added.

The proposed safe haven regulations, published in the Nov. 25, 2005 edition of the Commonwealth Register, would allow the CNMI to host international victims of human trafficking and forced prostitution, particularly ethnic Vietnamese living in Cambodia.

“The Attorney General finds that the proximity of the CNMI to Southeast Asia and its plenary power over immigration provides a useful tool in fighting the global problem of human trafficking and forced labor,” read a public notice issued by the AGO.

“This regulation is intended to allow approved non-profit charitable corporations to establish a safe, healthy environment for victims while carefully continuing to monitor the entry of aliens into the Commonwealth,” the notice added.

According to the proposed regulations, the Safe Haven Entry Permit will be limited to children aged 8 to 16, who will be sponsored by a non-profit entity dedicated to rescuing victims of human trafficking and sexual slavery.

Initial permits would be issued for a 90-day period, but they may be renewed indefinitely at the attorney general’s discretion. A holder of such permit may eventually transfer to foreign student immigration status if he or she meets requirements.