‘Solving the same problems’

Antonio Sablan, the former director of immigration under the Commonwealth, recalls that the entry of foreign workers was welcome on the islands but there were cases when they caught individuals trying to enter via fraudulent means. (Bea Cabrera)

Before the federal government took control of immigration and labor systems in the CNMI in 2009—a process called federalization—the CNMI controlled its own immigration system and laws. The Commonwealth was in charge of who comes in and out and who are welcome and who are not.

Like many other countries that manage their own immigration systems, CNMI immigration laws were based on preserving culture and community, security, and honoring rights—whether U.S. citizens or non-U.S. citizens, said former CNMI Immigration director Antonio Sablan.

He said that Commonwealth’s immigration laws were patterned after the U.S. “We did that because we were basically patterned under the U.S, Constitution.”

“This was also true with enforcement—how we detained and deported people, how you are supposed to extend due process to people. We enforced laws directly, like if any person wants to enter the CNMI and presents fraudulent documents, we put them back up on the airplane [and] we don’t need to go to court for that,” he added.

Sablan, who is now the Legislative Bureau chief, recalls that the influx of foreign workers were welcome on the islands but there were cases where they caught individuals trying to enter via fraudulent means.

“We look at the work description and it would say construction. But when we interview the person, the truth comes out where they really have zero construction skill or experience.”

“There were also cases where people say they are this ‘person’ but after strict scrutiny, we find that that identity belongs to somebody else. We dealt with them accordingly and lawfully,” he added.

Eventually, many wrongdoings found their way into the islands and abuse was prevalent—exploitation by employers of foreign employees, tax evasion, permanent settlement of temporary workers, and distorted trade agreements during the garment factory era.

These circumstances caught the attention of the U.S. government and, in 2008, U.S. Public Law 110-229, or the Consolidated Natural Resources Act of 2009, paved the way for U.S. federal immigration law to be implemented in the Commonwealth.

Former attorney general Pamela Brown-Blackburn, who currently heads the Pacific Ombudsman Humanitarian Law, said that federalization of immigration in the CNMI did not eradicate the abuses and illegal transactions that happened before the federal government took over local immigration.

“Post-federalization, the CNMI was at the mercy of whether or not (federal) departments wanted to expand the resources to prosecute these cases.”

“The most frustrating part about federalization is, although the feds would like to call them ‘normalization of immigration,’ they had the chance to actually use the CNMI as a pilot project for lots of really good ideas that they have never been able to implement in other places because it is just too big. There’s no way to isolate things to where you can actually see the effect,” she said.

“So, with them not choosing that path, but choosing instead the regular bureaucratic ‘just stay up with the papers, move it along’ [system] it is hard not only on the economy of the CNMI, but it is hard on the fabric of the culture because the CNMI has always been a melting pot,” she added.

Brown-Blackburn said that, as the attorney general during the administration of former governor Juan N. Babauta, they fought hard to make immigration laws well enforced. “We were prosecuting those cases of employers performing illegal acts and abuse with employees and even after the Trafficking Protection Act was passed in 2000.”

“We were still prosecuting it under our own laws in our own local courts and so we were bringing these cases to our judges and arguing them vehemently that these people (foreign workers) should not be held liable because they are victims and the perpetuators are really the employers. We got pushed back because it was a new concept but we were getting there before federalization took over,” she added.

Brown-Blackburn recalls cases that would always fall apart because “employers” knew who to bribe. “Now they don’t know who to bribe but they know how to fly underneath the radar. …As is the case generally, ethnic groups feed on their own. …Filipinos take advantage of Filipinos, Chinese of Chinese, Bangladeshi of Bangladeshi. …They often have the assistance of local employers who may not be of the same ethnic group, but take advantage of people that they know are in a gullible position,” she said.

“We have a case right now where an employer has been here for many years and still abusing workers. …We are filing with the local Department of Labor and, thank goodness, we have a proactive local Labor again…but, yes, it just keeps going on and on as these are same guys, same faces doing the same business that I was trying to get when I was AG,” she added.

Federal agencies such as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are present in the CNMI, but Brown-Blackburn acknowledges the challenges that these agencies face. “The fact that there aren’t enough federal investigative officers on island is a big challenge. You cannot enforce laws if you can’t investigate it,” she said.

“The guys that are here are very dedicated but, at some point, the resources just need to be replenished…The CNMI is so far way that it is ‘out of sight, out of mind’ and the only thing we have going for us is it is a militarily strategic location. That’s why we got Yutu relief as fast as we did. As for other resources, they [U.S. government] are focused on bigger problems,” she added.

Brown-Blackburn’s office currently works with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in bringing justice to marginalized populations. “The U.S. Attorney’s Office has been kind to take in cases as many as possible. Mind you, they are very expensive cases to prosecute to the fullest extent…so we can’t expect them all to end up in front of a court, so there has to be some other means of getting justice for the victims and blackballing the employers.”

“Because the U.S. Attorney’s Office has connections to the State Department, they understand how to reach and they did. In one case, they reached out to the embassy in Dhaka, Bangladesh and Bangladesh stopped allowing CW-1 workers to come to Saipan. Now that they have been alerted as to which companies resort to fraud and abuse of employees and avoid them, now we can have CW workers coming from Bangladesh,” she added.

Pacific Islands Ombudsman Humanitarian Law, which Brown-Blackburn heads, is a non-profit organization that is at the forefront of protecting laborers, women, and migrants. It is currently holding a fundraiser to help victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking.

“I can’t tell you how many people walk in our office…by word of mouth about the work that we do among workers. People would just walk in and tell me things. If we can’t help, we offer to call the employer and point them (workers) in the direction where they might find some type of help,” she said.

“There should be a kind of office inside the government—either federal or local—or inside the Legislature or [Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan’s] office. We need a very proactive place…not necessarily to run interference with federal and local agencies but an office that would actually listen to people and extend some type of assistance or relief,” she added.

With Gov. Ralph DLG Torres currently in Washington, D.C. for a planned Section 902 consultation with the federal government to discuss matters related to CNMI immigration, Brown-Blackburn said we should start talking about thousands of people here who shouldn’t have to struggle about their status all the time. “It shouldn’t be more than just an issue whether or not we have enough H-2B workers. We need to raise it even further.”

“Thousands have been here for so many years, that CNMI resident cards is something we need to talk about again, something we need to explore again,” she added.