[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 70 (Friday, May 14, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5369-S5370]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS COVENANT IMPLEMENTATION ACT

  Mr. AKAKA. Mr. President, last night, the Senator from Alaska and I 
introduced the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Covenant 
Implementation Act, legislation to end immigration abuses in a U.S. 
territory know as the CNMI. This is a bipartisan reform bill, and the 
changes we propose were supported by the Clinton Administration during 
the 105th Congress.
  I commend my colleague from Alaska, Senator Murkowski, for his 
leadership on CNMI reform. He traveled more than 10,000 miles to get a 
first-hand understanding of this issue. Our bill responds to the 
profound problems that we witnessed while visiting the CNMI.
  The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands is a group of 
islands located in the far western Pacific. Following World War II, the 
United States administered the islands under a U.N. Trusteeship.
  In 1975, the people of the CNMI voted for political union with the 
United States. Today, the CNMI is a U.S. territory.
  A 1976 covenant enacted by Congress gave U.S. citizenship to CNMI 
residents. The covenant also exempted the Commonwealth from U.S. 
immigration law. This exemption led to the immigration abuses that our 
bill will correct.
  I don't represent the CNMI, but the Commonwealth is in Hawaii's 
backyard. I speak as a friend and neighbor when I say that conditions 
in the CNMI must change. The CNMI system of indentured immigrant labor 
is morally wrong, and violates basic democratic principles.
  The CNMI shares the American flag, but it does not share our 
immigration system. When the Commonwealth became a territory of the 
United States, we allowed them to write their own immigration laws. 
After twenty years of experience, we know that the CNMI immigration 
experiment has failed.
  Conditions in the CNMI prompt the question whether the United States 
should operate a unified system of immigration, or whether a U.S. 
territory should be allowed to establish laws in conflict with national 
immigration policy.
  Common sense tells us that a unified system is the only answer. If 
Puerto Rico, or Hawaii, or Arizona, or Oklahoma could write their own 
immigration laws--and give work visas to foreigners--our national 
immigration system would be in chaos.
  America is one country. We need a uniform immigration system, rather 
than one system for the 50 states and another system for one of our 
territories.
  There is a mountain of evidence proving just how bad the CNMI 
situation has become. Let me cite a few examples:
  Twenty years ago, the CNMI had a population of 15,000 citizens and 
2,000 alien workers. Today, the citizen population has increased to 
28,000. Yet the alien worker population has mushroomed to 42,000--a 
2000 percent increase. Three to four thousand of these alien workers 
are illegal aliens.
  The Immigration and Naturalization Service reports that the CNMI has 
no reliable records of aliens who have entered the Commonwealth, how 
long they remain, and when, if ever, they depart. A CNMI official 
testified that they have ``no effective control'' over immigration in 
their island.
  The bipartisan Commission on Immigration studied immigration and 
indentured labor in the CNMI. The Commission called it ``antithetical 
to American values,'' and announced that no democratic society has an 
immigration policy like the CNMI. ``The closest equivalent is Kuwait,'' 
the Commission found.
  The Department of Commerce found that the territory has become ``a 
Chinese province'' for garment production. The CNMI garment industry 
employs 15,000 Chinese workers, some of whom sign contracts that forbid 
participation in religious or political activities while on U.S. soil. 
China is exporting their workers, and their human rights policies, to 
the CNMI.
  The CNMI is becoming an international embarrassment to the United 
States. We have received complaints from the Philippines, Nepal, Sri 
Lanka, and Bangladesh about immigration abuses and the treatment of 
workers.

[[Page S5370]]

  Despite efforts by the Reagan, Bush and Clinton Administrations to 
persuade the CNMI to correct these problems, the situation has only 
deteriorated.
  My colleagues, the Senator from Alaska and I have been patient. After 
years of waiting, the time for patience has ended. Conditions in the 
CNMI are a looming political embarrassment to our country. I urge the 
Senate to respond by enacting the reform legislation we have 
introduced.

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