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House leaders stand pat vs federalization lawsuit
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Posted on May 27 2009
Leaders of the House of Representatives stood pat yesterday on their earlier stance not to support Gov. Benigno R. Fitial’s lawsuit against federalization of local immigration.
In his State of the Commonwealth Address yesterday, Fitial said he is disappointed that many members of the Legislature did not get behind his efforts to oppose federalization, “given the significant economic harm it presents the Commonwealth.
House Speaker Arnold Palacios said Fitial certainly has the prerogative to express his disappointment but “he’s got to remember that all these individuals are also elected officials.
“And so they can also express their position and everyone certainly has the right to their perspective on the federalization issue,” he said.
The Speaker said he has not changed his previous position on the issue.
“I am against the litigation from the very beginning primarily because I felt that a good faith effort could have been done to negotiate some of the regulations to implement. We didn’t do that. The administration opted to immediately file the lawsuit,” he said.
Palacios believes the filing of the lawsuit hampered policies, rules and regulations that could have been worked out to address the challenges the Commonwealth would have on this issue.
Rep. Diego Benavente said he still feels the same way about the lawsuit.
“There is no question, we agree with the impact and how it [federalization] affects us. But even from the very beginning we felt that working with the Obama administration in drafting the temporary regulations was a way in which we can work to reduce the hardships, the negative impact that it has. There is no question that it’s going to affect us,” said Benavente, who is chairman of the House Committee on Federal and Foreign Relations.
However, given that the CNMI has yet to see the regulations, Benavente said he would agree with the idea to further delay the implementation of the law.
A further delay, he added, might buy the CNMI the time necessary for the Department of Homeland Security to implement measures that would allow the Commonwealth continued access to the China and Russia markets.
