NMI pushed as Pacific Gitmo

Now that President Obama has ordered the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention center within the year, Rep. Ray Yumul is proposing the U.S. government build a similar facility here in the CNMI.

Yumul, during yesterday’s House of Representatives session, said he would prepare a resolution stating the CNMI is willing to host detainees.

“This is a good opportunity to not just provide for the services of national security, and for the protection of Americans to include the Commonwealth, but also to bring in fresh resources and income for our weakening economy,” he said after the session.

“If the U.S. is having a hard time trying to find hosting nations to take some of these detainees, we’re willing to do that here,” he added. “Economically, it’s a very good opportunity because facilities will be built,” he said, adding that the Commonwealth would see a multiplier effect because of the military and federal officials needed to administer such a facility. Locals could also be employed to work in the center, he added.

Questions concerning the safety of hosting the detainees should not be an issue, the representative said.

“Some questions were brought up about the caliber of these detainees, and that it might subject us to increased threat, but I don’t see that because the U.S. Customs and Border Protection is doing their job,” Yumul said. “They know how to go about securing the borders in its states and territories, so that shouldn’t even be of major concern.”

If it is a concern, it needs to be a national concern, he said.

Beginning June 1, unless otherwise delayed, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and its component agencies, including the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will be in charge of immigration detention and the removal of aliens in the CNMI.

While serving in Iraq, Yumul said there were many times when reservists on active duty would guard high-threat targets.

“These were people caught in the act conducting terrorist activities in Iraq,” he said. “I don’t see why this would be an issue. We have very professional security officers, police officers. That shouldn’t even be an issue.”

The Commonwealth, Yumul noted, has experience with housing detainees. In 1999, the U.S. government requested the CNMI host hundreds of undocumented Chinese nationals on Tinian, after they were intercepted on their way to Guam. Overcrowding at the immigration holding centers in Hagatña forced the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service to divert to Tinian boatloads of illegal Chinese nationals believed to be victims of human smuggling. CNMI officials had asked the federal government to reimburse the half-a-million dollars the local government spent to provide security and temporary shelter to the Chinese nationals.

Charles Reyes, press secretary for the Governor’s Office, said the administration is always open to revenue-generating measures, but Yumul’s idea seems unorthodox. There might be legal issues, and it would need to be examined further, he said.

Since Obama signed an executive order calling for Guantanamo Bay’s closure last week, security experts have questioned where the detainees will be relocated. Countries within the European Union have said they are willing to help the Obama administration empty the Guantanamo facility, but some countries are hesitant to take in inmates.