OIA outlined contacts to spread news on manufactured allegations against CNMI

Determined at tainting the good reputation the CNMI has so diligently built up through the years, even media organizations and independent federal agencies were tapped by the Office of Insular Affairs to facilitate its grand scheme to extend federal immigration and labor laws in the Northern Marianas.

The OIA scheme to tarnish CNMI’s public image was crafted professionally that agency insiders even prepared a list of contacts that may be of significant help in spreading the news about the manufactured accusations hurled against the Commonwealth.

Former Insular Affairs Director Allen P. Stayman and his public affairs and policy chief David North connived to aggressively pursue negative media against the Northern Marianas and its apparel manufacturing industry.

OIA officials even assisted in the crafting of a press release that spoke of the alleged losses incurred by the United States economy, and how the Saipan garment manufacturing sector is hurting the North Carolina textile and apparel industries.

An analysis of the major news coverage would actually show that most reports about the Northern Marianas and its existing industries, as well as its use of foreign labor, resulted from OIA outreach.

It also clearly implicates OIA in the manufacture of investigations of the CNMI, in which the agency engaged the Immigration Reform Commission to conduct an inquiry of the island’s immigration policies and apparently find loopholes in it.

“David Levy (of IRC) wanted some more background information, and I sent it to him today, including a copy of the most outrageous of the shadow contracts, the one that bans all political or religious activity, and forbids them to fall in love or get married,” said Mr. North in a May 9, 1997 letter to Mr. Stayman.
OIA also contacted a certain Arthur Gundersheim UNITE, a mainland U.S.-based apparel manufacturing association, where details of previous reports on Saipan and its garment industry have been discussed.

Media Contacts

The insular affairs office also reached out to a National Broadcasting Company’s television producer for a possible trip to Saipan to do a segment on the fabricated allegations of labor abuses on the island.

“An Asian woman journalist [with the local NBC/TV station] will be at the Department on May 27 for an Asian American/Pacific Islander Heritage Month event. I am working through DOI channels to see if we can tell her what we are trying to do on behalf of Asian women in Saipan,” said Mr. North.

Other organizations tapped by the OIA to pursue its efforts at spreading negative talks about the Northern Marianas include: the Federation of Americans for Immigration Reform, a major restrictionist organization; the Women’s Wear Daily which apparently agreed to carry a story about the CNMI in exchange for an OIA subscription.

“I have been talking with their (Women’s Wear Daily) reporter covering the Administration, she is interested and wants to interview you, which we can arrange later. I have asked [a certain] Mary to get us a subscription; the library does not subscribe,” Mr. North told Mr. Stayman in a May 1997 correspondence.

He also tried seeking the support of the Women’s Commission on Refugee Women and Children on the grounds of alleged widespread abuse of women in the Northern Marianas.

“A former co-worker is on the board and I have also talked with their Washington lobbyist. Not sure what they will do yet,” he said, adding that immigration bar newsletters may also be of help OIA and the Clinton Administration advance their interests in terms of federalizing CNMI immigration and minimum wage.

“Further, I have reached out to, but not heard from yet, a member of the Immigration Commission, Richard Estrada, who is also a syndicated columnist based with the Dallas Morning News,” said Mr. North.

At the same time, manufactured attacks hurled against the garment manufacturing industry apparently originated from the OIA which researched on the list of apparel brands made on Saipan through the U.S. Department of Commerce.

“Similarly, I am reaching out to the ranking immigration scholar at the Urban Institute; they are more pro-immigration than I am, but I think we can agree on this one. I suggest that I make an appointment for us to visit the manufacturers association,” he said.