Immigration Debate

Neighboring Guam has legitimate reasons to refuse entry of illegal Chinese immigrants into its peaceful shores. The social cost of accommodating new US Citizens–500 plus at a time–would force a whopping expenditure against a budget decline as it awaits for more immigrants sailing in from provinces in China seeking political asylum.

With federal law taking precedence over local laws, in this case federal immigration law, Guam really has no choice but to genuflect and follow orders from Washington in the disposition of illegal Chinese fleeing from political oppression in their home country. It demonstrates the irrelevancy of a law in a remote US territory and the obvious inadequacy of US INS in bringing this issue effectively under its wings.

For INS to ably do a credible job in controlling the open-waters of the Marianas (Guam and the NMI), the federal government would have to reinvent the role and function of this agency by infusing millions of dollars in US taxpayers money into its Pacific Area operations. In other words, the federal government would have to establish a new Navy equipped with a dozen or so hi-tech patrol boats plying the waters between Asia, Micronesia and Hawaii.

However, recent history of the much maligned INS says it is hardly equipped to handle patrolling the southern borders of the US which stretches some 2,000 miles between California, Arizona and Texas. Imagine the whopping cost of patrolling the waters between Asia, Micronesia and Hawaii. The area itself is three to four times as large as the North American continent. It means US mainland taxpayers must fork out more of their hard-earned income to cover the ill-conceived policy the feds now promote in a takeover bid of immigration. Why try fixing the curent system that works in the interest of both sides of the Pacific?

Yes, no other US jurisdiction is ever granted the authority solely the purview of the federal government. But the differing situation between Guam the NMI insofar as illegal Chinese immigrants are concerned should give our national policymakers some helpful hints on the impracticalilty of the proposed takeoer of immigration. To repeal it for the sake of political correctness would instantly shift the political rights of the indigenous people not to mention another horrendous expenditure for US mainland taxpayers who must cough-out millions of dollars to fulfill an ill-conceived agenda by the US Deplartment of Interior’s OIA.

In our view, OIA’s agenda is riddled with all the wrong reasons to attempt a federal takeover of immigration. It has completely ignored that American Jurisprudence, insofar as labor and immigration violations are concerned, do work effectively in dealing with violators here. Unless the federal government can come up with a better system, the current one must be left intact with all agencies (local and federal) working side by side to ensure that the laws are followed to the letter. Think about it. Si Yuus Maase`!

Strictly a personal view. John S. DelRosario Jr. is publisher of Saipan Tribune