Gov. Ralph DLG. Torres issued a statement yesterday to belie rumors that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency is in the process of ending the CNMI Discretionary Parole Program, saying this rumor is \u201cpolitically motivated.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTalk has been circulating regarding the status of the CNMI Discretionary Parole Program and it\u2019s nothing more than politically motivated scare tactics aimed at impacting our tourism economy,\u201d Torres said.<\/p>\n
His office describes the program as \u201cvital\u201d to the CNMI economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am saddened that there are those in the community that would spread a rumor that this vital program,\u201d Torres said. \u201cIt\u2019s even worse when political candidates use this issue and express concern about the status when all it takes is making a phone call with the CBP headquarters or [Department of Homeland Security] headquarters to verify.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis past week, my staff and I have been in contact with not only the CBP headquarters in Washington, D.C., but also the Department of Interior, Department of Homeland Security, and the White House.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTo a person, I was informed that not only is this a rumor, but the status of the program is not even being discussed.\u201d Torres said.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cSince the beginning of the Trump administration, I have been working with the CBP to identify ways to improve the process while ensuring that the laws are being followed, so the CNMI economy can continue to grow with a diversified tourism market.\u00a0I am committed to doing whatever it takes to keep this valuable program intact.<\/p>\n
\u201cI fully recognize that political season is upon us, but I am hopeful that all candidates for office refrain from political scare tactics as it only hurts the people of the CNMI that they are trying to represent.\u201d (PR)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Gov. Ralph DLG. Torres issued a statement yesterday to belie rumors that the U.S. Customs…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[22451,2130,26,4322],"class_list":["post-283006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-border-protection-agency","tag-cbp","tag-cnmi","tag-white-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283006","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\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283006\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}