CNMI finds allies in US

In what appears to be a 360-degree turnaround from the situation a couple of years back, the Northern Marianas is now getting more supporters in the mainland United States.

Yesterday, influential American daily Washington Times published a letter by George Mason University School of Law associate professor Peter Ferrara in its opinion page.

Entitled “A new protectionism,” Professor Ferrara wrote that Senator Frank Murkowski’s bill seeking to extend federal immigration laws to the CNMI represents a new type of protectionism.

The kind of protectionism Mr. Murkowski wages, according to him, involves disabling regulation and bureaucratic control rather than enforcing tariffs and quotas.

He cited that S.507 would rest local immigration authority from the CNMI government and hand it over to the federal immigration agency.

The law school faculty, however, argued how the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which cannot even handle its immigration responsibilities in the mainland US, would be able to administer federal immigration law on the faraway islands.

He also inferred that phasing out guest worker visas over 10 years would spell disaster for the CNMI economy which, the professor noted, relies heavily on the garment and tourism industries.

The two industries have been responsible for providing the islands economic growth but have to employ guest workers from nearby countries to keep everything going.

The investment the garment and tourism industries brought to the island, according to Mr. Ferrara, has increased the indigenous residents’ median income from $8,900 in 1980 to $30,700 in 1999.

He also noted federal taxpayers have benefited as well. “Local revenues from the booming economy finance 87 percent of the Marianas’ government budget. This is not only higher than any other US territory… It is higher than any state and local government as well,” Professor Ferrara wrote.

The law professor also referred to recent reports from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and General Accounting Office that dispelled the smear campaigns against the Commonwealth’s garment industry and relax immigration controls.

Mr. Ferrara even quoted a statement made by Frank Strasheim, OSHA administrator to the region, when he said, “They (SGMA) are on their way to becoming a model for the rest of the world. I’m impressed by the (industry’s) combatant in placing the safety and health of their workers first.”

On the other hand, the GAO report concluded that the CNMI has a highly effective and modern immigration control operation, with a computerized tracking system monitoring each guest worker.

The OSHA and GAO findings effectively torpedoes the logic of Senator Murkowski’s bill to bring the CNMI under the umbrella of federal immigration laws, Mr. Ferrara said.

Professor Ferrara also reserved unsavory words to the US garment industry. He noted, “Protectionist garment industry unions and manufacturers back here on the mainland are not happy over this Far East competition, even though the Marianas only account for half of one percent of US garment sales.”