The CNMI government plans to hold a citizenship swearing-in ceremony for the \u201cstateless\u201d individuals after Dec. 16 this year\u2014if the federal government does not oppose it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d like to see a forum where we can swear-in these individuals as U.S. citizens,\u201d said Gov. Juan N. Babauta yesterday.<\/p>\n
He said this would be done in coordination with local federal authorities.<\/p>\n
Right now, he said, \u201cthe plan is to await Dec. 16\u201d\u2014the deadline for the federal government to appeal a Ninth Circuit decision recognizing that those born in the CNMI between Jan. 9, 1978 and Nov. 4, 1986 and onwards are considered U.S. citizens.<\/p>\n
Babauta said he discussed this matter with U.S. Rep. Daniel Burton during the latter\u2019s visit on the island.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re hoping that the DOJ would not appeal the case,\u201d said the governor.<\/p>\n
Burton, who stopped by Saipan over a week ago, said he is ready to join the CNMI in petitioning the federal government not to appeal the court ruling anymore. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think that they [stateless children] should have that status. They are kind of caught in between. And I\u2019ll be happy to work on that. We\u2019ve been working on that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Right now, he said, the situation is \u201cwait and see\u201d amid a possible appeal of the decision.<\/p>\n
At the same time, Burton said that his office has been working with the governor in preparing a bill granting the stateless individuals U.S. citizenship. <\/p>\n
The U.S. citizenship issue is ultimately determined by the U.S. Congress.<\/p>\n
Meantime, Babauta said that over 100 stateless persons have applied for U.S. passports. Once approved, their passports would be issued after Dec. 16.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir applications are being treated like any other applications,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The federal appellate court decision last September affirmed the U.S. citizenship of the stateless persons\u2014those born in the Northern Marianas between Jan. 9, 1978 and Nov. 3, 1986.<\/p>\n
Some authorities believe that \u201cstateless\u201d persons also include those who were born and raised in the Northern Islands from Jan. 1, 1974 up to Nov. 4, 1986 when CNMI citizens were granted full U.S. citizenship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The CNMI government plans to hold a citizenship swearing-in ceremony for the \u201cstateless\u201d individuals after Dec. 16 this year\u2014if the federal government does not oppose it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85318","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\/85318","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=85318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85318\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}