Uncle Sam’s illegals

Five Chinese nationals were apprehended at the Honolulu International Airport this month. They were illegal aliens using fake South Korean passports to gain access to the United States. A few weeks before this incident, another group of illegal Chinese immigrants were caught using fake Japanese passports. Although the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service caught a few of these criminals, some of them may have succeeded. In any case, illegal immigration clearly abounds in the United States.

According to the federal government’s own statistics, as of October 1996, America had at least 5 million illegal aliens, primarily from Mexico and the rest of Latin America. And of America’s 5 million illegals, more than 2 million reside in the State of California alone, George Miller’s home district. But that was back in 1996–three years ago. There are probably millions more by now.

So before the feds complain about the CNMI’s immigration problems, they should first look at some of their own troubles. Senator Frank Murkowski, for example, claims that the CNMI immigration system has proven to be a great failure. But let’s look at the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. The INS has experienced corruption within its ranks. The U.S. Immigration Service has experienced considerable failures–again, more than 5 million illegal aliens. Any non-third world country or territory is bound to experience illegal immigration problems.

The feds ironically claim that the CNMI is a slave labor state. They speak of indentured servitude, horrible human rights abuses, and other atrocities. Yet, for an entrenched bastion of slave labor, a surprising number of both legal and illegal aliens would rather not leave. They want to stay here–permanently, if at all possible.

The feds want to argue both ways. They want to have their cake and eat it too, so to speak. On the one hand, they cry about CNMI alien worker abuses. On the other, they complain about CNMI immigrants bringing crime and disease.

Then they complain about the enormous alien tax on our infrastructure, and so on, and so forth. Al Stayman himself once openly stated that aliens were bad for the CNMI economy. The feds will say anything to advance their agenda.

But let’s remember one crucial point: Unlike California’s 2 million illegal aliens, CNMI aliens are not entitled to massive welfare state benefits. Nearly all of them are productive.

And one other thing: the Chinese boat people crisis has nothing to do with our garment factories or our local immigration policies. Even the United States has problems with illegal Chinese smuggling and boat peoples.

The attempt to link the Chinese asylum seekers to our immigration policies is a travesty. Even if the CNMI never imported a single alien worker, the Chinese boat people might have still tried to make it to Guam. Federalizing CNMI immigration would only compound the problem by encouraging more asylum seekers to make the perilous journey.