‘US passports for ex-stateless OK’d’

The U.S. State Department has given the go-signal to issue U.S. passports to the former stateless individuals in the CNMI, Gov. Juan N. Babauta said yesterday.

He said that U.S. Passport regional director in Honolulu Nancy K. Finn informed him in a letter that, as a result of the recent legal proceedings on the Sabangan vs. Powell case, “Passports Services will now recognize those persons in the CNMI born between Jan. 9, 1978, and Nov. 3, 1986, [as] entitled to U.S. citizenship.”

She said this is provided for under Section 501 of the Covenant, which established the political union between the CNMI and the United States.

“With this new interpretation of the Covenant, it will no longer be necessary to execute the CNMI supplemental statement for those applicants born in the Commonwealth on or after Jan. 9, 1978,” said Finn.

She said the court’s decision favoring the granting of U.S. citizenship to people born in the CNMI during that period “doesn’t change any other Department of State interpretation of the Covenant.”

U.S. Passport Office director Ann Doris Babauta said she received information that the U.S. passports of the former stateless individuals will soon be issued.

“Passports will be forthcoming within the next few days. We’re hoping within next week,” she said.

So far, she said, her office has received over 200 passport applications from the former stateless individuals.

There were an estimated 300 stateless persons in the CNMI but some have already left the islands for their parents’ home countries or their status changed after being married to a U.S. citizen.

She said the passports will be issued depending on the transmittal of documents. “There will be no preferences. It depends on the transmittal.”

Initial information indicates that the passports would be sent to the CNMI in batches.

When asked, the governor said he would want to have a special ceremony for the former stateless individuals, but no final decision has been made on this.

“These individuals are already U.S. citizens. To have them sworn-in in a ceremony is like putting icing on the cake. That’s normally done in the states. I just would like to suggest to do that with a federal official,” he said.

Babauta said his office may invite U.S. District Court Judge Alex Munson, Insular Affairs deputy assistant secretary David Cohen, or a federal official out of Guam.

The granting of U.S. citizenship to stateless individuals came after the U.S. government decided not to appeal last month a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that effectively reversed the local court’s decision against the petitioners.

The Appeals Court cited that the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which provides that individuals born in the U.S. becomes its citizens. The court said this is applicable to the Commonwealth from Jan. 9, 1978 onwards.

Stateless individuals were those children born to foreign parents in the CNMI between Jan. 9, 1978, when the Covenant was adopted, to Nov. 3, 1986, when the U.S. government granted U.S. citizenship to CNMI residents.