Rep. Angel A. Demapan (R-Saipan) remains hopeful that officials in Washington, D.C. would carefully study the 902 report that was submitted to Congress and respect the recommendations made by both panels that finalized it.<\/p>\n
Demapan, who was part of the CNMI panel in last year\u2019s 902 talks, said that not all federal policies that\u2019s being crafted and implemented in Washington, D.C. are applicable here. <\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes, in federal policy, what\u2019s good for D.C. and the U.S. mainland is not good for the CNMI. \u2026But that\u2019s just the way things work. This is how things work with our remote location. We\u2019re not attached to the mainland and that makes it more challenging for our economy to thrive. We need to look at creative and innovative solutions, and part of that is the parole and visa waiver program,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Demapan used to chair the House Committee on Federal and Foreign Affairs in the 19th Legislature, where he had the chance to join Gov. Ralph DLG Torres and other CNMI leaders in several meetings with Washington, D.C. officials, especially during the administration of former President Barack Obama.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there\u2019s any part of those recommendations that would move forward, it would require congressional action and that would need legislation by Congress. When it gets to that stage, it is going to be our job to make that we push again and make them understand why those recommendations are in there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said the Trump administration\u2019s strict guidelines on immigration pose a big concern for the CNMI. \u201cWe understand that their view on immigration is generated and based on the issues that are happening in mainland,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re hopeful that they understand our views, because our views\u2026are based on our need to capture visitor arrivals and the source market that have been coming here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Demapan added that unlike in the mainland, where there are other industries that fuel their economy, tourism is the CNMI\u2019s primary economic drive. \u201cAnd if we lose this because of immigration reform or policy, then what will happen to our economy?\u201d<\/p>\n
He said CNMI officials should also be mindful on the CNMI\u2019s infrastructures if it has the capacity to host bigger number of visitors. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rep. Angel A. Demapan (R-Saipan) remains hopeful that officials in Washington, D.C. would carefully study…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[26,4419,14696,53],"class_list":["post-249654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-cnmi","tag-foreign-affairs","tag-house-committee","tag-president-barack-obama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249654\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}