{"id":403648,"date":"2023-12-12T23:12:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-12T23:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=403648"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"Supportive-measures-for-discretionary-parole-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/Supportive-measures-for-discretionary-parole-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Supportive measures for discretionary parole program"},"content":{"rendered":"

U.S. lawmakers sent a joint letter to U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas requesting to revoke the discretionary parole program for Chinese tourists entering the CNMI. The lawmakers raised significant concerns about the United States’ visa policy for Chinese nationals entering the Commonwealth of Northern Marianas Islands.<\/p>\n

Gov. Arnold I. Palacios talked to the press and revealed that he was already aware of the letter weeks ago, even before some lawmakers publicly asked DHS to mandate the visa requirements.<\/p>\n

The letter is stirring up discussions in the CNMI business sector. The local Chinese community is also cognizant of Gov. Palacios’ view on the China tourism. His pivot away from the China market remarks made headlines several times months ago. He takes a position on pivoting away China as a governor who needs dialogue and dealing with the federal government is a justifiable reason. While zero tourist and the economy on life support during COVID-19, the entire CNMI economy depended upon vital federally subsidized funding and relief programs. According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office’s report to congressional committees, federal agencies allocated more than $1.9 billion in COVID-19 relief funding to the Northern Mariana Islands.<\/p>\n

The discretionary parole program for Chinese tourists has been disordered and confused in past years. Rumors of the cancellation of the program have already been going around for many years. Some people have forecasted significant consequences or impacts. The U.S. lawmakers’ letter is oddly predictable, as far as I see.<\/p>\n

According to Marianas Visitors Authority, the China market made up over 40% of the CNMI’s tourism industry pre-COVID-19. Therefore, we can conclude that the government will experience a shortfall of about 40% in tax revenues when a China market exit occurs.<\/p>\n

The letter outlined the concerns of U.S. lawmakers that has merits and deserves attention. However, in my view, the drawbacks from the discretionary parole program appear to be manageable. The CNMI can have multiple institutions taking part in planning and implementation to reduce the risks of border security and elevate economic security. Of course, the CNMI has a daunting list of things to do to tackle the issue.<\/p>\n

In regards to the controlling of illegal immigration, in terms of population and geographic area, the CNMI is puny relative to the size of the U.S. mainland. According to USA Facts Nonpartisan Government Data: Between October 2019 and June 2023, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported almost 7.7 million border encounters across the U.S. Monthly encounters peaked at over 300,000 people in December 2022. (weblink: https:\/\/usafacts.org)<\/p>\n

The Saipan Chamber of Commerce, Hotel Association, and some CNMI lawmakers, collectively propose ideas and solutions. One suggests a “legitimate, vetted visa for CNMI to allow Chinese nationals into the CNMI tourism” called the EVS-TAP Program. All relevant parties view the matter through their filter. It is difficult to predict the results.<\/p>\n

The CNMI, a U.S. territory in the Pacific Ocean, sits at crossfire as tensions between the U.S. and China escalates. Fortunately, on Nov. 15, at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in San Francisco, U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping had more than four hours of talks. After the meeting, on social media, Biden said he valued the conversation he had with President Xi. Biden said, “There are critical global challenges that demand our joint leadership. And today, we made real progress.” I sincerely hope talks between the CNMI and U.S. lawmakers will make progress as well.<\/p>\n

As an ancient Chinese proverb says: “The mountains are high and the Emperor is far away.\u201d It is in the CNMI government\u2019s best interest to persuade the distant, 7,801-mile-away D.C. policymakers about what the CNMI needs to achieve sustainable economic growth.<\/p>\n

Betty Bai<\/strong><\/p>\n

Editor, Saipan Chinese News<\/em><\/p>\n

Power Young Publishing<\/em><\/p>\n

It is in the CNMI government\u2019s best interest to persuade the distant, 7,801-mile-away D.C. policymakers about what the CNMI needs to achieve sustainable economic growth.<\/strong><\/p>\n


Letter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

U.S. lawmakers sent a joint letter to U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-403648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403648","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403648\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}