In Their Own Words – Sablan

Congress had every right to enact U.S. Public Law 110-229 to federalize the immigration laws for the Northern Mariana Islands.

Having said this, federal lawmakers and officials must understand the crucial role of tourism to our economy, and should develop regulations that will take into consideration our Commonwealth’s reliance on tourists from foreign countries. Besides tourists from Japan and South Korea, a significant number of our visitors are from China and Russia and the application of U.S. federal immigration laws and policies could be very problematic for these visitors. We need to protect our tourism industry from the effects of the federalization of immigration.

Unless the federal government include China and Russia in their visa waiver program, or provide some other means to allow these visitors continued entry to the Northern Mariana Islands, we stand to lose up to 100,000, or more, tourists because of the federalization of immigration in the Northern Mariana Islands. And while we should remain steadfast to our duty to keep all threats to our national security from entering our borders, the federalization of immigration is a very serious matter that will adversely impact our tourism industry. Hence, the drafting and the implementation of regulations that will manage the federalized immigration system here is a matter that will require my immediate and special attention as your Delegate to the U.S. Congress.

As a former Special Assistant to United States Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, I understand well that congressional committees have large influence over executive agencies designated to carry out a law. So it is important that I will try to obtain an appointment to the Committee on Homeland Security so that we could have a greater influence over the drafting and over the implementation of the policies that will apply the federal immigration laws to our Northern Mariana Islands. Membership in the committee will also give us greater leverage to find programs and funds to train and qualify our existing Immigration officers and other NMI residents for the federal immigration jobs that should become available.

There have surfaced in our community and government arguments that U.S. Pub. L. 110-229 may have overreached into issues affecting local self-government; that the law in its present form was broadly drafted. If this claim is correct, then this is a problem that we should attempt to resolve by getting legislation enacted to provide clarity to the contentious issues and thereby eliminate any need to litigate the issues and thus save us the money we will otherwise spend litigating the issues in federal courts.

What is most important is that we need to do everything possible to further influence federal legislations and policies to support the long-term performance, growth and expansion of our economy so that we can attain the lofty goal of an economically self-sufficient Northern Mariana Islands. This, after all, is the promise of the Covenant and influencing the regulations that will govern the federalization of immigration in the Northern Mariana Islands, beginning with protecting our tourist industry, advances this promise.

Greater details of our “one people, one path, one promise” position papers are available at http://kilili08.com/.

Thank you for your continuing support and I humbly ask you for your vote of confidence in ’08.