Gov. Ralph DLG Torres and several members of the Legislature support the Republican Party\u2019s push for \u201cequal U.S. citizenship\u201d to be extended to the three U.S. territories.<\/p>\n
Sponsored by U.S. Virgin Islands\u2019 national committeeman Jevon Williams, the Republic National Committee last Friday adopted a resolution titled \u201cAffirming Equal Citizenship for All Americans,\u201d which is set to be submitted to U.S. President Donald J. Trump, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), and Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).<\/p>\n
The resolution says U.S. citizens residing in the \u201cterritories of Guam, NMI, and the Virgin Islands,\u201d regardless of their sex, race, color, ethnicity, religion or creed, are \u201centitled to the full of enjoyment of their citizenship.\u201d<\/p>\n
Americans in U.S. territories are U.S. citizens but cannot vote for the U.S. President, nor do they have full representation in Congress.<\/p>\n
The resolution calls for the U.S. Congress to \u201censure that American citizens residing in the territories of Guam, NMI, and the Virgin Islands to have unfettered enjoyment of their American citizenship.\u201d The resolution states that citizens residing in the territories should also enjoy the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, also known as the right of people to keep and bear arms.<\/p>\n
When asked about the \u201cequal U.S. citizenship\u201d portion of the resolution, Torres said he has always supported the intent of the resolution even during his tenure as a Saipan senator, citing a past resolution introduced during his time at the Senate. <\/p>\n
Rep. Lorenzo Deleon Guerrero (Ind-Saipan) also backs the intent of the resolution. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be good for U.S. citizens to be allowed to vote for the U.S. president,\u201d said Deleon Guerrero, adding that party affiliation is irrelevant. \u201cWhoever wins [the presidential elections]\u2014and if he knows the people of the CNMI voted for him\u2014then he is going to take care of us,\u201d he said. \u201cIf a president garners the most votes from a territory, of course we would be taken cared of.\u201d<\/p>\n
Along with equal rights, Sen. Justo Quitugua (Ind-Saipan) believes that U.S. citizens in the CNMI and other territories should have the right to vote for the U.S. president, as well as full representation in Congress. <\/p>\n
\u201cI am in support with the intent to provide equal rights for NMI residents and other territories. I also support the right for [our delegate] to participate in the whole U.S. House sessions and for the right to vote on U.S. House bills,\u201d said Quitugua, adding that with equal rights, NMI residents may be \u201ctreated equally in terms of grants and other opportunities not extended to the CNMI and the other territories.\u201d<\/p>\n
Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP) represents the CNMI in Congress but he is a non-voting delegate, which means he is only allowed to attend committee meetings of the U.S. House and vote at the committee level. He is at present a member of the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources, U.S. House Committee on Veterans\u2019 Affairs, and a member of the U.S. House Committee on Education and Workforce.<\/p>\n
Sablan, Rep. Ivan A. Blanco (R-Saipan), and Sen. Sixto Igisomar (R-Saipan) were not able to respond to email messages as of press time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gov. Ralph DLG Torres and several members of the Legislature support the Republican Party\u2019s push…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[26,14696,67,176],"class_list":["post-259045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-cnmi","tag-house-committee","tag-people","tag-virgin-islands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259045","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\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259045\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}