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Hosting of illegal aliens bolsters CNMI’s stance
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Posted on May 26 1999
Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio yesterday said the hosting of illegal Chinese immigrants on Tinian reinforces the Commonwealth’s position to oppose the imposition of the US immigration laws on Northern Marianas.
Tenorio made the comments after Chairman Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska), head of the US Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources which has oversight over American insular areas, questioned Washington’s asylum program.
According to Murkowski, the White House’s decision to divert close to 500 Chinese illegals to the island municipality reflects a contradiction on its plan to apply the Immigration Nationality Act in the Northern Marianas.
“If we extend the immigration laws, as one portion of the administration wants, we will frustrate the interdiction and repatriation program being pursued by another portion of the administration,” Murkowski pointed out.
According to the CNMI leader, the US senator “raised a very good question” to support the island government’s position that it retains control of the local immigration system. “That’s one of the reasons why we continue to ask the federal government that we maintain our own immigration law.”
The streams of boatloads of illegal immigrants into neighboring Guam have crowded the immigration detention centers in Hagatna, forcing the Immigration and Naturalization Service to divert these undocumented aliens to Tinian.
Close to 500 Chinese nationals are sheltered temporarily in a “tent city” set up in a former US military base in the island municipality where they will await repatriation.
