CNMI imponderables
Micronesian leaders have recently questioned the proposed restrictions on the free flow of FSM citizens into the CNMI. They claim that Micronesian citizens should not be “unfairly” penalized for America’s failure to comply with the compact agreement. The question Micronesian leaders should instead be asking themselves is: “Who is being fair to the citizens of the CNMI?”
Our economy continues to falter. Hundreds of businesses have folded. Foreign investment has come to a standstill. Government revenues are plummeting. Our primary source of revenues–the garment industry–is under unrelenting assault from abroad. And to make matters worse, the Chinese refugee crisis on Tinian has just added another $500,000 to our already formidable financial woes. To top it all off, the federal government, which has stiffed us on compact-impact reimbursements, may not even reimburse us for our Tinian refugee expenses.
Who is being fair to the people of the CNMI? Nobody. Definitely not 20/20. Which is all the more reason we must begin to be fair to ourselves. We can start by imposing restrictions upon the costs of accommodating incoming Micronesians–no matter what the Micronesian leaders may say.
The U.S. Customs Gestapo
An NBC Dateline story recently exposed the widespread discriminatory policies of the US Customs Service. According to Dateline NBC, US Customs officers routinely practice racial profiling with impunity.
African-Americans, for example, are regularly targeted for humiliating strip searches and other dastardly deeds. These victims are normally detained without so much as a shred of probable cause, proof or evidence. They are detained merely for being black–apparently, a clear-cut indicator to US Customs officials that they are probably smuggling drugs.
According to the June issue of Reason Magazine, “Some suspects are kept for hours, even days, without being allowed to call lawyers or family members.” In other words, American citizens are being deprived of their human rights at the hands of the US Customs Service, for which they have absolutely no legal recourse.
What is worse–only about twenty-five percent of US Customs detainees are actually found in possession of illegal substances. The other seventy-five percent were wrongfully detained, humiliated, physically violated, abused–sometimes even tied down to beds and forced to take powerful laxatives in order to examine bodily waste products for narcotics.
The US Customs Service sticks fingers up innocent American citizens’ orifices on the mere suspicion of crime. Again, no warrants or probable cause are required. Because of overzealous drug laws and the cold bureaucratic insensitivity of big government, these federal law enforcement officials have Gestapo-like powers on “American soil.” They operate with gross impunity and immunity.
Is this really what we want to impose upon our islands: unelected federal bureaucrats completely out of our local, democratic control?
I certainly hope not.
