Speech #1100124206

Mr. Speaker. I rise in strong support of H.R. 3079. a bill which would extend U.S. immigration laws to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and also authorize a nonvoting Delegate from the Northern Marianas to the U.S. House of Representatives. At the start of the 110th Congress. as the Chairman of the Natural Resources Committee. I set out an agenda which included revisiting the CNMIs control and enforcement over immigration policy. Many in this House will recall that for at least two decades. our government and this Congress expressed our concerns with how immigration policy in the CNMI was envisioned and implemented. When the Northern Marianas was transitioned from being a trust territory of the United Nations to a U.S. territory under our stars and stripes. temporary control over immigration and minimum wage laws were placed in the hands of the new local government. This was done in light of their small. mostly indigenous. population and their undeveloped economy. Their control was never meant to be a permanent fixture of their government. Throughout the 1990s the CNMI economy grew by taking advantage of its control over immigration and wage policy. A garment industry. much of it owned by nationals of China. saw fit to make the CNMI their new home. In so doing. the industry was able to fill practically every position in their operations with a foreign worker at a minimal cost to their operations.