Gov’t to cooperate in hosting illegals

Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio yesterday said his government is willing to accommodate requests by the United States to divert to the Northern Marianas vessels carrying illegal Chinese immigrants that will be captured by authorities in the future.

“I have already made a commitment when I discussed this with the justice department. I have committed that we are ready to cooperate,” the governor said in an interview.

But Tenorio underscored that future diversions should be for “humanitarian reasons”, easing fears among local residents that the islands would become a permanent holding area for illegals who will be apprehended in the high seas until their deportation.

The island municipality of Tinian is playing temporary host to 147 illegal aliens from China upon the request of the US Department of Justice.

An unmarked vessel carrying the Chinese nationals was blocked by the US Coast Guard last week off international waters as it attempted to sail to Guam, which over the last weeks has been flooded with illegal immigrants.

Representatives from the Immigration and Naturalization Service explained overcrowding at Guam’s Division of Corrections had prompted them to divert the ship to Tinian, where the US keeps control of a tract of land once used as a military airbase.

But Tenorio said in his discussion with the justice department representatives there was no indication that Washington would bring in more boats that will be interdicted in the future.

The other day Sharon Gavin of INS assured that while the construction of a “tent city” at Northfield is underway to temporarily shelter the undocumented Chinese pending their return to China, there was no plan to make the site a permanent holding area for illegals.

One local official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Commonwealth can only take in illegal immigrants attempting to sneak in to Guam if these are arrested outside the territorial waters of the neighboring island.

“Once these Chinese illegals set foot on Guam, which is a US soil, INS authorities cannot turn them back or divert them to the Northern Marianas. But if their ship is stopped before it could enter Guam and they need to be brought to the CNMI for humanitarian reasons, that’s the only time the government can take them in,” the official explained.