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MHS students seek increased awareness on takeover issue
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Posted on Mar 13 2000
Realizing the role they will eventually have to play in shaping the future of the CNMI, students of the Marianas High School are asking private sector leaders to make a presentation before them on the potential adverse effects of the proposed federalization of local immigration and minimum wage.
The students, led by the MHS Close Up Club, are seeking increased awareness on the issues surrounding the federal takeover of local immigration and minimum wage control.
MHS Close-Up president Ashlee Tenorio was inviting officials of the Saipan Chamber of Commerce to talk before an audience of high school students who have expressed intentions to know more about the issue.
The students are hoping to grab the opportunity to send the local sentiments on the federal takeover issue to U.S. government officials during the Close Up National Programs in Washington D.C.
Saipan Chamber of Commerce president Lynn Knight said the students have made a good move in taking up the federal takeover issue in their academic session, where she agreed to make a presentation of the business sector’s stand on the proposal advanced by the Clinton Administration.
“This is an issue business people have studied for so many years and I would be very pleased to make a presentation and answer any questions your students and teachers may have,” Ms. Knight told MHS students in her March 7, 2000 letter.
She said many people in the CNMI have difficulty understanding the economic consequences of a federal takeover. “There is a wealth of information that could be made available to students so they can make their own decisions, for or against.”
The Saipan Chamber of Commerce has been very vocal about its opposition to the extension of federal immigration and minimum wage into the CNMI, citing potential severe damage to the island’s struggling economy.
Both the business community and the CNMI government have expressed intentions to continue lobbying efforts against the extension of federal immigration and minimum wage to the islands. (ARF)
