‘Fitial’s claim of 9,000 illegals over-inflated’

Delegate Gregorio Kilili Sablan (Ind-MP) and former immigration director and now Rep. Tony Sablan (R-Saipan) separately said yesterday that the 9,000 illegal aliens in the CNMI that Gov. Benigno R. Fitial claimed is a number that they believe is “overly inflated.”

Fitial reiterated his request to the federal government to give him the authority to deport illegal aliens and overstayers.

Florida-based human rights activist and former Rota teacher Wendy Doromal, in her blog, said “giving a corrupt and self-serving governor the power to regulate deportations is clearly an insane plan.”

“Why does the governor of the CNMI think that he can decide which nonresidents in the CNMI are legal or illegal?” Doromal asked.

Delegate Sablan said that Fitial’s figure is “inaccurate,” based on the delegate’s recent meetings with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officials.

“That’s highly inflated and highly irresponsible,” the delegate said in a phone interview.

Rep. Sablan, meanwhile, said he doesn’t believe the number of illegal aliens in the CNMI is that high.

“Even when the economy was still strong, the number of illegal aliens was not that high. Now the economy is so bad, I don’t think that many people would want to stay here when there is no more available work for them,” he said.

The representative said more than a decade ago, the government also thought there were several thousands of illegal foreigners in the CNMI but under a 1998-1999 amnesty program, only 3,000 to 3,500 illegal aliens came forward.

“The economy was still not as bad as it is now and we only had some 3,000 illegal aliens. Even with that number, there were many of them who had pending labor and immigration cases so they’re not really illegal. So I believe the governor’s number now of 9,000 is highly inflated,” he said.

Last year, Fitial said there were only some 3,000 illegal aliens in the CNMI, but this number, he said, has grown to over 9,000. He said they include those involved in the underground economy, are illegally employed, or jobless and therefore not paying taxes nor contributing to the economy or the community.

He also considers illegal or overstayers those who could not find an employer to petition them for a Commonwealth-only worker or CW status, and ended up applying for parole with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS has yet to decide on the application of many of these individuals.

Rep. Sablan said if people have applied for parole or for Commonwealth-only worker status, then that does not make them illegal. He pointed out that immigration is now a federal matter.

Doromal, for her part, said it is up to the DHS, USCIS, and the immigration courts to decide the status of foreigners.

She also questioned Fitial’s claim of being “very good” at deporting overstayers.

“He was very good at authorizing the CNMI Department of Labor to deport foreign workers who wanted to stay in the CNMI to pursue efforts made to collect thousands of dollars of back pay that their criminal-thief employers stole from them. I certainly would not call that ‘good’—maybe evil, unjust, deceitful, immoral, corrupt, but not ‘good,’” Doromal said.

Rene Reyes, founding president of the Marianas Advocates for Humanitarian Affairs Ltd., earlier said the fact that foreigners are applying for parole shows that they still want to contribute to the local economy. Most people granted parole could apply for authorization for employment so that they could legally work in the CNMI.

Doromal also took issue with the governor’s suggestion that everyone who is not contributing to the economy should “get out.”

“He thinks he can decide this? What about the disabled, the ill, the indigent? Is he speaking about only nonresidents or U.S. citizens as well? After all, many U.S. citizens in the CNMI are collecting food stamps and are not contributing taxes or to the economy. The CNMI is U.S. soil and federal laws apply. No governor can banish a person who is legally in the U.S. because he considers them to be ‘overstayers’ by his definition, which runs counter to U.S law. How absurd,” Doromal said.