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Focus energy on pressing matters
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Posted on Apr 22 2008
We know that in our Covenant agreement, we (CNMI) gave the U.S. federal government the right and responsibility to control our immigration programs. We know that, because of the heightened security concerns brought about by the military realignment that will affect Guam and possibly the CNMI, the Federal government feels it needs to exercise their right to properly manage our immigration policies. We know from our U.S. government class in high school that the immigration policy of a nation is inherently a “sovereign function of the national government.” We know that this CNMI immigration bill has a strong support of the U.S. Congress and the Bush administration.
To take on or confront the federal government on this bill with all these facts would probably be unwise. I suggest we focus our energies instead on the most immediate and pressing challenges at hand. One of them is the shrinking private sector that cannot continue to support our “big government.” The feds seem to be unwilling to bail us out. They know that this situation we find ourselves in is “inherently a local matter.”
The federal government, however, is offering to help us. I understand that the Office of Insular Affairs is ready, willing, and able to assist us if we are committed to make the transformation from a “public-sector-dominated economy to a private-sector-dominated economy.” I suggest we take on the feds on their other. We may yet see the light at the end of the tunnel.
[B]Joaquin S. Manglona[/B] [I]Rota[/I]
