[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 60 (Thursday, April 29, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H2526-H2527]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS IN GUAM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Guam (Mr. Underwood) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. UNDERWOOD. Mr. Speaker, this is the third time in 3 weeks that I 
have taken the opportunity to give a special order on an ongoing crisis 
in my home island of Guam, and this pertains to the continuing arrival 
of illegal immigrants from the People's Republic of China.
  During this past week, there was yet another 200, over 200 illegal 
immigrants who have arrived. On October 23, 175 were apprehended off of 
Guam's waters and on April 28 another estimated 100 were apprehended 
near Guam's shores by the U.S. Coast Guard.

                              {time}  1345

  The number of apprehended illegal immigrants from the People's 
Republic caught near Guam is now well over 700 this year. A couple of 
weeks ago I informed this body and I have informed the administration 
about the inhuman ramifications of this smuggling trade in human beings 
into Guam.
  These people are being smuggled in by Chinese crime syndicates which 
charge them anywhere from $10,000 to $30,000 each. They set sail in 
squalid quarters meant to survive, in a vessel that is meant to survive 
a one-way trip in open ocean for over 10 days from the Fukien Province 
inside China to Guam, near Guam, and the Mariana Islands.
  Upon successfully completing the trip, they are then, if they are 
successful and if they land on Guam, invariably they are successful in 
getting some kind of asylum, they are made into indentured servants for 
many years to work to pay off their debt to the smugglers who have 
brought them into the United States.
  This is very unlike other economic refugees or even the border 
crossings that we see on our southern border. This is clearly a 
smuggling trade in which these people who are making the journey are as 
much victims as the people of Guam are being victimized by this trade.
  According to the INS officer in charge on Guam, Mr. David Johnston, 
the waves of illegal immigrants will not stop. We are faced with a 
phenomenon that will not stop unless we change the applicability of 
Federal law to Guam, in the case of immigration, the application of the 
Immigration and Naturalization Act, and unless we make it apparent to 
the Chinese smuggling crime syndicates that this will no longer be a 
profitable trade for them.
  There is a way out which has been utilized by the administration, a 
process which I fully endorse, and that is to take these people and 
instead of moving them to Guam, to take them up to the Commonwealth of 
the Northern Mariana Islands, another U.S. territory, but interestingly 
a U.S. territory in which the application of the Immigration and 
Naturalization Act does not fully apply.
  So what that means is that when these people are taken to the 
Northern Marianas, what happens is that they do not have the right to 
all the kinds of asylum which is generally available in Guam or any 
other U.S. territory. It is anticipated that from there they can be 
repatriated back to China within weeks rather than the 2 years it takes 
to adjudicate asylee cases, in which case most of the time they are 
generally released into American society.

[[Page H2527]]

  So as a consequence of this the Coast Guard has been taking and 
trying to interdict these vessels in the open ocean and moving them to 
the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands through the 
collaboration and cooperation of Governor Tenorio and other officials 
there, and for that at least the people of Guam are grateful, and we 
certainly endorse this policy, this practice which has been implemented 
by the Clinton administration.
  Illegal immigration into the United States is a Federal 
responsibility. Because of Guam's proximity to Asia, it is incumbent 
that Federal agencies assist the Government of Guam in combating this 
serious problem on our shores. It is important to understand that Guam 
is only 212 square miles in size and our population is only 150,000. 
Any significant increase in the immigrant population on the island has 
significant social and financial repercussions because of our 
financial, current financial conditions which are affected by the Asian 
economic crisis, and because we do not have the alternative resources 
available for noncriminal alien immigrants that are generally available 
in the U.S. mainland.
  The financial strain on Guam's resources are tremendous. I hope that 
we can find a way to reprogram some $10 to $15 million to take care of 
this problem on Guam and to reimburse the Government of Guam for costs 
that have already been expended on this crisis.

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