Citizenship for aliens or what?

What this has really come down to is we have two leaders willing to gamble with our future and their political real estate. It seems that gambling is just keeps coming out of the woodwork for us. It started with the poker machines and they gambled with our economy even giving us all kinds of odds and excuses to get casinos for 10 years and now they are gambling with the political future of the CNMI and their political real estate that is now on the table. The governor and delegate are literally gambling with the political future of the CNMI. I truly understand their attempt to secure a stable and dependable workforce but I think they need the support and approval of the people they work for before committing to something that will forever change the voting and political dynamics of the CNMI in favor the alien workforce. We should be doing all we can to keep as many of the alien workers that we can but to just give them voting power that could lead to a majority control over the government after five years is absolutely ridiculous!

When did the governor and the delegate poll the people to see how we felt about this matter—they didn’t! What makes them think they are right—what proof do they have of the future and how many alien workers will be granted citizenship after five years? No one knows the answers, not even the feds, so it is all a gamble! Why does the governor only want to talk to the Legislature when he should be giving a public address to tell us why if he fills so strongly about the bill? He is putting a lot of political real estate on the table with this issue and from what I hear over the Coconut Wire it does not look good for him and our delegate! The people gave the governor and our delegate the authority to speak for us but they are truly going to make the people take back that authority in the next election and give it to someone who will respect the people they work for if they continue down this pathway to citizenship.

I wanted to address this racism and discrimination assertions last hopefully to put all of this to rest: FYI, those who don’t understand the principles at play in this issue, there is a difference between nationality and ethnicity. To imply or apply a special preference within the CNMI based on nationality is not racism or discrimination as we do it daily at the airport but to imply a special preference based on ethnicity within the same nationality of the CNMI is racism and discrimination. The alien workers are not Americans so racism, discrimination, and equality as citizens are mute issues as they have their own nation! We all know for a fact they certainly wouldn’t give non-Filipinos a political majority in the Philippines—we would be dead, nor would I expect them to give ruling political power to a different nation of people—so let’s keep it real. If the CNMI was only going to experience a 4-percent increase in voters like the mainland I would be the first to say give them citizenship but we are talking over 100 percent in the CNMI and the math don’t lie. Locals have no choice but to say no for our children’s political future and I’m sure the average alien worker can understand this hard decision.