Speech #1090172658

Only 6 months ago. the Government asked Congress for an unprecedented $140 million in new appropriations to maintain government operations and meet critical needs. There are many reasons for this dire situation. some are temporary. others are systemic. One of the systemic causes of this situation which should be addressed promptly by Congress and the administration is the local governments labor and immigration policies. particularly their promotion of an extremely high population growth rate. 500 percent in 30 years. and their promotion of the use of alien guest workers instead of U.S. citizens for nearly all private sector occupations. In order to establish a stable and sustainable foundation for the CNMIs future. a new Federal Immigration and labor policy framework and Federal institutions are needed to properly control the borders and to properly manage the guest worker program. When the CNMI became a U.S. territory in 1976. most U.S. laws were Immediately extended. However. the granting of U.S. citizenship to the inhabitants and the extension of U.S. immigration law were not to occur until after termination of the Trusteeship Agreement". that is. not until after the international community. acting through the United Nations. recognized the extension of U.S. sovereignty over the islands by terminating the U.N. Trusteeship Agreement. Unfortunately. during the 10year period between U.S. approval of the covenant in 1976 and U.N. termination of the trusteeship in 1986. the CNMI began the importation of foreign workers to exploit a combination of immigration. wage. and trade privileges. In 1986. the Reagan administration wrote to the CNMI Governor stating that "the tremendous growth in alien labor [is] ... extremely disturbing" and urged "timely and effective action to reverse the . . . situation." The administration warned that "the uncontrolled influx of alien workers . .. can only result in increased social and cultural problems." The CNMI policy was also inconsistent with the legislative history of the covenant which states that local immigration control was intended to restrict immigration in order to protect the indigenous community from being overwhelmed by immigrants. Notwithstanding these concerns expressed by the Reagan administration. and later the Bush and Clinton administrations. the CNMI continued to import alien guest workers and other. nonworker. aliens. The population of 16.000 in 1976 has exploded to an estimated 80.000 today.