Repeal Public Law 110-229

The current situation with no-resident workers in the CNMI is an embarrassment to the Commonwealth and to the United States Congress.

Governor Torres has appropriately addressed the issue to President Obama, according to Sec. 902 of the Covenant. However, the problem lies with Congress, not with the administration.

The problem was created with knee-jerk legislation tacked onto the Consolidated Natural Resources Act of 2008 as S. 2739: A bill to authorize certain programs and activities in the Department of the Interior, the Forest Service, and the Department of Energy, to implement further the Act approving the Covenant to Establish a Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in Political Union with the United States of America, to amend the Compact of Free Association Amendments Act of 2003, and for other purposes, signed into law by President George W. Bush on May 8, 2008, becoming U.S. Public Law 110-229. It successfully killed the garment industry in the CNMI, costing our government 1/3 of its annual revenues, as verified by the Government Accounting Office. The American Textile Industry lobbyist successfully shut down the garment industry on Saipan and moved it to foreign countries, costing American taxpayers millions of dollars in food stamps for Saipan.

It also gave the federal government control over the economic development of the CNMI by controlling the nonresident worker force. Every study conducted by the U.S. government relative to providing economic development for the NMI has recognized the need for nonresident workers. It was integral to establishing the Covenant, paving the way for the development of a tourism industry.

The CW system was a failure from the day it was conceived, because the feds could not create appropriate regulations in a timely fashion. The CNMI lost a hotel-casino development on Tinian almost immediately. Now, long-established small businesses throughout the Commonwealth, the heart-blood of our islands, will be forced out of business because new construction companies on Saipan have eaten up all the available slots, and the feds failed to make allowances for renewing the workers who built our current economy. That just ain’t right.

Instead of negotiating for an increased cap in CW workers, the CNMI should be lobbying with Congress to repeal that section of PL 110-229 relative to federalizing immigration and return control over immigration in the CNMI to the CNMI government. To stimulate that action, the governor might consider requesting the Attorney General to file a TRO against the federal government to stop all actions relative to the CW workers, and ensure that those employees who have been working productively in the CNMI since even before George Jr. arrived on the scene will be able to continue to work and keep our small businesses operational.

If even one CNMI CW family is torn apart because nonresident parents who are legally in the Commonwealth are repatriated and forced to leave their U.S. citizen children behind, while there are millions of illegal immigrants working in mainland America, lawsuits would be in order, and Speaker Paul Ryan the U.S. Congress must hang their head in shame.

Don Farrell
Marpo Height, Tinian