Admin: Several individuals funding review of complaint vs US govt

The Fitial administration remains vague about the funding source for the lawsuit it is preparing to file against the U.S. government over the new immigration law.

Gov. Benigno R. Fitial has hired a U.S.-based law firm to review the draft complaint and recommend whether there is any legal barrier to the effort to sue the federal government.

Press secretary Charles P. Reyes Jr. said the legal review done by Jenner & Block is funded “by several individuals interested in a careful and professional independent assessment of the litigation alternative.”

Reyes ducked requests to name those individuals, and suggested that the law firm may be working without a formal contract. Asked whether the governor is helping to pay the law firm, Reyes replied, “I do not have a copy of any such contract, if there is one yet.”

However, he said that public funds will be used to pay for the lawsuit if the government files it.

“We are still in a very preliminary stage,” said Reyes. “If the governor decides to file a complaint after receiving the report from the outside lawyers, he will then be prepared to estimate the projected cost of the litigation through the preliminary injunction stage and seek the support of the Legislature.”

Lawmakers and community leaders have expressed concern about the cost of suing the federal government. They say the Commonwealth cannot afford to pay for a lawsuit, given its dwindling resources.

But Reyes said the expense is a secondary issue. “All they care about is the cost. But the CNMI economy is at stake here. That is a cause worth fighting for,” he said.

In his television address on Tuesday evening, Fitial cited legal and economic issues as his reasons for pursuing litigation over the immigration “federalization” law.

He said the damaging effects of the immigration law are starting to show. According to him, the cap on the level of foreign workers currently in effect has already made it difficult to get needed laborers for major construction projects on the islands. Potential foreign investors have withdrawn because they are unsure if they can get adequate workforce.

He also said that 20,000 foreign workers, and their families, could be deported from the Commonwealth by Dec. 31, 2014 or some other year if the U.S. Secretary of Labor grants an extension to the transition period. Such deportation, according to Fitial, would cut the CNMI’s economic output by at least 50 percent, and that would, in turn, increase out-migration by local residents to the mainland United States.

He also predicted a decrease in the total population from its present 60,000 to about 35,000, calling it “a drastic reshaping of the entire community with very troubling social, economic, and political consequences.”