Federalization lawsuit vs common sense

The private sector is being mentioned as the one paying for Governor Fitial’s proposed lawsuit against the U.S. Congress and President Bush’s Administration for enacting Public Law 110-229, which included the CNMI Immigration’s federalization and the creation of a CNMI Delegate to the U. S. Congress. I find the filing of a lawsuit before the alleged damage or injuries taking place to be rather presumptuous and most certainly without merit. How can you file a lawsuit for damage or injuries to our economy when nothing has yet to occur as a result of the law?

On the contrary, what has consistently occurred over the years and even up to this day is the continuing deterioration of our way of life due to not only the dismal and serious nose-diving economy but also due to misguided government policies on economic, political and social development of our Commonwealth. These frustrating and disturbing events are happening now in the CNMI despite the fact that the federal government has not yet taken over control of our local immigration authority. All the adversities being alleged as a result of federalization are already happening and the feds are not here yet!

Why is the Governor lying to us and himself by claiming that our economy has been negatively impacted or even destroyed because of immigration federalization when the law was only recently enacted and before the rules and regulations are implemented? People know that the answer is political grandstanding and the sad part is too many people bought into this political ploy and two of them even want to be the first delegate-not getting my vote.

A real politician would know the lawsuit poses a counterproductive inhibitor with no solution to the issue of federalization. It is far more prudent to wait for the regulations to be implemented and then measure the injuries or damage if the Governor is so sure they will occur. The governor can then have his day in court after the legislative oversight process fails.

To believe in the Governor and the lawsuit, you would have to believe that after the oversight process in Congress, the Governor will be able to have his day in court to piss and moan about how the United States has been so inhumane for implementing federal immigration law and he could even demand billions of dollars as compensation for damages to citizens and businesses.

In fact, if the Governor would wait, his lawsuit will have a bit of credibility if he can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the implementation of the immigration law and the failure of the oversight process will cause chaos and calamity to our great and flourishing economy that has the best immigration and labor policies in the world at a time when we are at war with terrorist. I’m sure people can see the ridiculousness of this lawsuit. Just because you have a right to sue doesn’t mean your lawsuit is right but that’s what happens when lawyers start dictating government policy—we get a lot of lawsuits and fewer solutions for the people.

A lawsuit against the federal government can take years to even reach the court and maybe another year or more for a decision. The lawsuit will have to go to the U. S. Supreme Court and the chance of that are slim and none and we will still be sitting in the dark and in a state of despair when the Governor should have been trying to use the many avenues at his disposal for reconciliation and negotiations for a meaningful solution to our differences with the federal government. A lawsuit is also an insult to the Covenant and to the people who voted to become a Commonwealth of the United States. How can you fight being what you asked to be? It doesn’t make any sense and it should be obvious that a lawsuit is not an immediate solution to our problems. The lawsuit may even exacerbate the enmity that already exists between the federal government and some CNMI officials. Whatever happened to following the “oversight” process of federal laws that we pledged to do when we became a Commonwealth?

Suing for “economic injuries” that have not yet occurred does not make common sense when the injuries to be evaluated for a determination on how much to ask for in the suit have not yet occurred. It is too early to think about suing for damages. We could even shortchange ourselves by asking for a lesser amount than the actual damages, that is, if the injuries even occur. We must also prove the injuries and given our poor tracking, documentation and analysis of systemic issues affecting the CNMI, we won’t have very much concrete proof—just a lot of finger pointing.

Filing a lawsuit against the feds when we are asking for help and need their help with the many problems we created on our own is simply an awful political strategy with poor foresight. Instead of creating a better working relationship with the federal government we are injecting an inhibitor in the form of a lawsuit in a very prejudicial manner and conditions. The federal government does have common sense to know and see that our administration has one hand in a closed fist to fight and one open hand begging for money.

The feds also know it is the private sector doing most of the complaining, not the people. The feds also realize it has been the “private sector” that has used its political power to perpetuate the many infractions of federal laws. It was the private sector that perpetuated a $3.05 minimum wage for over a decade in defiance of federal expectations, not the people. The private sector is selfish in its very nature of being in business and the interest of the people are second to turning a profit, which is why the private sector must stand on its own merits to a large degree—it known as laissez fair economic policy and we teach it in high school. I’m in full support of the private sector because they play a vital role but not at the expense of the people’s quality of life. If the private sector would truly place the people of the CNMI first they would help themselves and the CNMI more by tracking, documenting and performing their own economic analysis to demonstrate the damage to the CNMI once federalization is fully implemented and to use this data for the “oversight” process of the U.S. Congress.

The “oversight” process of the U. S. Congress is the final stage of a law being implemented and to sue before this takes place defies common sense as this process is in place to avoid the need for legal actions resulting from adverse effects of laws implemented. In other words, we don’t have to make more enemies in the U.S. Congress with a lawsuit and we can get the same results from the collaborative effort in the oversight hearings cheaper and sooner than we can from a lawsuit against the federal government!

We even have candidates for the U.S. Congress supporting the lawsuit against the federal government and we haven’t even seated our delegate in Congress yet. It shows how much they don’t know about the U.S. Congress. Do the people of the CNMI really want our entry into Congress to be overshadowed by a lawsuit that our new delegate will surely have to face and defend as his or her first task in the U.S. Congress? Just think, the first thing we will be doing when we enter the U.S. Congress is fighting instead of lobbying and laying the foundation for success in the oversight process. I commend Washington Rep Pete A. Tenorio for caring about the people of the CNMI first before politics and for having the fortitude and wisdom to be willing to work with the federal government and to follow the process to the end.