[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 123 (Tuesday, September 21, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H8388]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        INS REIMBURSEMENT TO GUAM AND COMPACT-IMPACT AID FUNDING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 19, 1999, the gentleman from Guam (Mr. Underwood) is recognized 
during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. UNDERWOOD. Mr. Speaker, today I want to talk about a couple of 
issues that are vitally important to the people of Guam and as we face 
the prospect of trying to deal with the remaining appropriations 
measures and face the possibility of some protracted negotiations 
between the leaders of both the House and Senate and the 
Administration, and these two issues pertain to the reimbursement for 
costs that have been incurred in Guam as a result of unrestricted 
immigration as well as recent experience, in particular this year with 
the onset of the arrival of many illegal immigrants coming from the 
People's Republic of China.
  Since the beginning of this year, Guam has been marked by some of the 
smugglers inside the People's Republic of China as the newest target 
for Chinese criminal organizations smuggling human cargo from the PRC.
  In the past 4 months alone, Guam has been the recipient of more than 
700 illegal aliens seeking political asylum in the United States. These 
figures have already surpassed the total of 1998 of over 600. It is 
further suspected that many more undocumented arrivals have hit Guam 
that have not been counted.
  As the U.S.'s westernmost border, Guam is perhaps the most attractive 
destination to enter the United States from the PRC. Guam is the 
closest American jurisdiction to China. The full application of the 
INA, the Immigration and Nationality Act, applies to Guam. Because of 
this, what has happened is that these people come to Guam and apply for 
some form of political asylum and then they are allowed to move on.
  Through very protracted negotiations involving the White House and 
particularly the National Security Council, as well as INS officials, 
we have been able to slow down this process by using the Northern 
Marianas as the place where they could also be taken. Interestingly, in 
the Northern Marianas, the full weight of the INS does not apply so, as 
a consequence, they were more easily repatriated back to the PRC.
  Guam is a very small place, only 212 small miles and a small 
population of 150,000. The real problem here for the people of Guam is 
that despite all of the guarantees of the Federal Government, the cost 
of housing these people has fallen on the Government of Guam. As a 
matter of fact, leading up until last month, the total cost is well 
over $7 million this year alone. And there continues to be over 500 of 
these individuals remaining in Guam facilities, in Guam Department of 
Correction facilities; and the prospect is that they may be there 
another year or 2 years at the rate of approximately $50,000 a day.
  Now, we had hoped that this reimbursement would come through in the 
process of the appropriations as the administration has asked for that, 
but it has not come to pass.
  Last week, however, our neighbors to the north, who have a much 
smaller bill presented to the Federal Government, the INS surprisingly 
announced that they were satisfying that bill from the Northern 
Marianas to the amount of $750,000.
  So today, certainly I call upon the INS to get moving on this issue 
to try to find the resources to reimburse the people of Guam and to 
reimburse the local coffers for this cost, which is not our doing and 
which was entered into as a result of good-faith negotiations between 
the Government of Guam and federal officials.
  Secondarily, there is also the issue of compact-impact assistance. 
This is as a result of the unrestricted migration of citizens from the 
newly independent states, the so-called freely associated states, 
primarily the federated states of Micronesia.
  This has been a continuing source of debate. There is a federal law 
which says that any social and educational costs as a result of this 
unrestricted migration, they are the only independent countries in the 
world that have no quotas, no visa requirements; they can freely 
migrate into any part of the United States, that as a result of any 
social or educational costs, the Federal Government will reimburse the 
territories.
  Well, because Guam is near these areas, these people have gone to 
Guam and continue to utilize social and educational resources, which we 
estimate amount to anywhere between $15 million and $20 million a year.
  As I speak today, in 1996, we were able to get an amendment to the 
Interior Appropriations Act to get a stream of roughly $4.5 million to 
Guam every year since then. But we certainly look forward to balancing 
those books a little bit more.
  The President's request put in $10 million for the upcoming year. And 
certainly it is my hope that as we continue the process of vetting the 
appropriations measures that these two important items, obligations of 
the Federal Government will be met.

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