The Humane Side to P.L. 11-69

Imagine yourself coming to Saipan to work about five years ago. You came for a specific reason. You needed work which would pay more money in one month than you could earn in five or six months in your own home country. After saying goodbye to family and friends and packing up a small handbag, you fly to Saipan. Upon arrival you are introduced to your “foreign” employer and assigned your job. Still in a state of bewilderment, you seek friends and attempt to orientate yourself to Saipan with all its strange customs and people.

Several years pass and you become established with new friends, are sending money home to your family or children to support their schooling. Perhaps you have bought your very first car and several pieces of jewelry. Every month you carefully stash away several dollars knowing that when you return to your country, you can buy a small plot of land and build a home that would always remain a dream unless you had this opportunity to work in Saipan.

Because you enjoy living and working in Saipan and the money is good, you feel a loyalty to the employer for the opportunity. By now you and other employees have established a rapport sometimes resulting in deep friendship. The pain and loneliness of being separated from family and friends coupled with the desolate feeling of a displaced person constantly haunts you. But you push them back because you know that the future is bright for you and your family.

Than someone shatters the future by reminding you that Public Law 11-69 mandates that you be repatriated to your home if you have been employed in the CNMI for at least three or more years. To hell with loyalty and to hell with your feeling and to hell with the vital and good job you have been performing. You must leave!

One side of the argument for repealing P.L.11-69 that has not been discussed sufficiently is the injurious effect it is causing on the non-resident employee’s emotional and personal life. All the arguments in favor of rescinding the bill concern themselves with the economic hardships businesses will suffer.

With the loss of necessary employees, businesses will have to either dramatically curtail their services or fold up their shops. The banks fear a run on their deposits. Panic is gripping the non-resident worker as well as the entire business community. The concept of a stable labor force will be destroyed. These