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Welcome home, Jacinto!
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Posted on Sep 23 2004
I’ve said my piece but it’s the court’s piece that matters. Jacinto Sabangan and all those born in the NMI since January 9, 1978 are citizens of the United States. I now ask our Legislature to please remove from the calendar of public holidays Citizenship Day because it no longer has significance.
This is a sad day for those opposed to Sabangan indeed, but it is a day that Jacinto and others can (because for most of them, they have for their entire lives known no other place to call home) officially tell themselves they have finally come home. Despite my disagreement with the court’s decision, I welcome Jacinto and his co-plaintiffs to our community and they deserve to be treated with nothing less than other Commonwealth citizens. They put up a fight and won. They deserve nothing less.
Judge Noonan’s flawed decision has set a precedent for the Dekada group and it is likely that they will win their lawsuit. Judge Munson, with instructions from Sabangan, will have to apply to Dekada the same standards established in Sabangan. But, because Dekada will be an immigration matter and not a State Department matter (passports are under the purview of the State Department but green cards and citizenship are under the purview of the Department of Homeland Security), Judge Munson may actually still be free to once again correctly rule as he did in Sabangan.
Jacinto, welcome home!
Gregorio C. Sablan
Garapan, Saipan
