{"id":306077,"date":"2019-08-15T06:06:39","date_gmt":"2019-08-14T20:06:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=306077"},"modified":"2019-08-15T06:06:39","modified_gmt":"2019-08-14T20:06:39","slug":"torres-optimistic-of-white-house-action-vs-birth-tourism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/torres-optimistic-of-white-house-action-vs-birth-tourism\/","title":{"rendered":"Torres optimistic of White House action vs birth tourism"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_306078\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-306078\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Torres-pix1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Torres-pix1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"277\" class=\"size-full wp-image-306078\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-306078\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gov. Ralph DLG Torres speaks with Fox News\u2019 Tucker Carlson. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Torres-pix2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Torres-pix2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"277\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-306079\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Gov. Ralph DLG Torres remains optimistic that the White House will act against birth tourism, which he said tarnishes the image of the CNMI abroad.<\/p>\n<p>Torres, who spoke with Fox News\u2019 Tucker Carlson, noted that he remains positive that the Trump White House will \u201clisten\u201d to his request to curb birth tourism through a change in the birthright citizenship clause, which is embedded in the U.S. Constitution\u2019s 14th Amendment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2026We have never had an administration that really had the opportunity to come down to the CNMI and watch and listen to address our concerns,\u201d Torres said. \u201cI believe in the leadership of the White House and we\u2026have really good supporters from the [U.S.] House and the [U.S.] Senate. I believe this issue will be addressed and I hope it will be addressed soon.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the last couple of years\u2026this type of tourism [is] just a fraction of our tourism industry but yet those actions hampered the ability\u2026to what we want to portray the CNMI as,\u201d he told the media outlet during a segment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt has been more common and frequent the last few years and it has been an issue in the last couple of years,\u201d he earlier noted.<\/p>\n<p>According to Torres, his administration brought up the concern to U.S. President Donald J. Trump.<\/p>\n<p>Last July 17, 2019, the CNMI Legislature approved House Joint Resolution 21-4 in a bid to limit birth tourism in the CNMI.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe resolution is saying we acknowledge the importance of our tourism\u2014we welcome tourism because that is the backbone of the economy, but to have birth tourism\u2026itself, we don\u2019t appreciate that because it has hurt our healthcare and that is the bottom line of our concern,\u201d Torres said, referring to HJR 21-4.<\/p>\n<p>Torres further added that he believes it isn\u2019t fair to brand people who oppose birth tourism as racists.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2026We welcome them as tourists. But to come in for the sake of giving birth, that is something that we should really be concerned of, and we are concerned because\u2026this is not the type of image that we wish to portray the Commonwealth,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have one of the nicest beautiful beaches, a [temperature of] 85 degrees all year round. We are the most beautiful islands in the Marianas and this is what we want to market\u2014our islands as a beautiful island to [visit]. It\u2019s peaceful, relaxing, [and has a lot of activities],\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gov. Ralph DLG Torres remains optimistic that the White House will act against birth tourism,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":306078,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[4322],"class_list":["post-306077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-white-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306077","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=306077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}