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“NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS COVENANT IMPLEMENTATION ACT” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Commerce was published in the Senate section on pages S5369-S5370 on May 14, 1999.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS COVENANT IMPLEMENTATION ACT
Mr. AKAKA. Mr. President, last night, the Senator from Alaska and I introduced the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Covenant Implementation Act, legislation to end immigration abuses in a U.S. territory know as the CNMI. This is a bipartisan reform bill, and the changes we propose were supported by the Clinton Administration during the 105th Congress.
I commend my colleague from Alaska, Senator Murkowski, for his leadership on CNMI reform. He traveled more than 10,000 miles to get a first-hand understanding of this issue. Our bill responds to the profound problems that we witnessed while visiting the CNMI.
The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands is a group of islands located in the far western Pacific. Following World War II, the United States administered the islands under a U.N. Trusteeship.
In 1975, the people of the CNMI voted for political union with the United States. Today, the CNMI is a U.S. territory.
A 1976 covenant enacted by Congress gave U.S. citizenship to CNMI residents. The covenant also exempted the Commonwealth from U.S. immigration law. This exemption led to the immigration abuses that our bill will correct.
I don't represent the CNMI, but the Commonwealth is in Hawaii's backyard. I speak as a friend and neighbor when I say that conditions in the CNMI must change. The CNMI system of indentured immigrant labor is morally wrong, and violates basic democratic principles.
The CNMI shares the American flag, but it does not share our immigration system. When the Commonwealth became a territory of the United States, we allowed them to write their own immigration laws. After twenty years of experience, we know that the CNMI immigration experiment has failed.
Conditions in the CNMI prompt the question whether the United States should operate a unified system of immigration, or whether a U.S. territory should be allowed to establish laws in conflict with national immigration policy.
Common sense tells us that a unified system is the only answer. If Puerto Rico, or Hawaii, or Arizona, or Oklahoma could write their own immigration laws--and give work visas to foreigners--our national immigration system would be in chaos.
America is one country. We need a uniform immigration system, rather than one system for the 50 states and another system for one of our territories.
There is a mountain of evidence proving just how bad the CNMI situation has become. Let me cite a few examples:
Twenty years ago, the CNMI had a population of 15,000 citizens and 2,000 alien workers. Today, the citizen population has increased to 28,000. Yet the alien worker population has mushroomed to 42,000--a 2000 percent increase. Three to four thousand of these alien workers are illegal aliens.
The Immigration and Naturalization Service reports that the CNMI has no reliable records of aliens who have entered the Commonwealth, how long they remain, and when, if ever, they depart. A CNMI official testified that they have ``no effective control'' over immigration in their island.
The bipartisan Commission on Immigration studied immigration and indentured labor in the CNMI. The Commission called it ``antithetical to American values,'' and announced that no democratic society has an immigration policy like the CNMI. ``The closest equivalent is Kuwait,'' the Commission found.
The Department of Commerce found that the territory has become ``a Chinese province'' for garment production. The CNMI garment industry employs 15,000 Chinese workers, some of whom sign contracts that forbid participation in religious or political activities while on U.S. soil. China is exporting their workers, and their human rights policies, to the CNMI.
The CNMI is becoming an international embarrassment to the United States. We have received complaints from the Philippines, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh about immigration abuses and the treatment of workers.
Despite efforts by the Reagan, Bush and Clinton Administrations to persuade the CNMI to correct these problems, the situation has only deteriorated.
My colleagues, the Senator from Alaska and I have been patient. After years of waiting, the time for patience has ended. Conditions in the CNMI are a looming political embarrassment to our country. I urge the Senate to respond by enacting the reform legislation we have introduced.
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