Pacific Magazine > Daily News

Governor To Challenge Washington Takeover In Courts

By Agnes E. Donato on Saipan
Wednesday: June 25, 2008

Northern Marianas Gov. Benigno R. Fitial has announced that he will sue the U.S. federal government over a recently passed law having Washington control the commonwealth’s immigration system.

Fitial in a pre-recorded television address aired Tuesday evening said he has hired a team of U.S.-based attorneys to review a draft complaint challenging the immigration “federalization” law.

“Let me be clear. We do not question the authority of the Congress to apply the existing federal immigration laws that apply to every other part of the United States except American Samoa. We agreed to that in the Covenant. Our complaint focuses on the labor provisions of the legislation, which are not, and never have been part of the federal immigration laws,” the governor said. 

Howard Willens, one of the governor’s legal counsels, drafted the complaint. Jenner & Block, a national law firm with offices in Chicago, New York and Washington, D.C., is reviewing the complaint. 

Fitial said he will file the lawsuit unless the law firm tells him not to do so.  

He argued that the new Northern Marianas immigration law violates the document that defined the Northern Marianas’ political relationship with the United States, also known as the “Covenant.” The Covenant, he said, guarantees the commonwealth’s right to self government and requires the U.S. government to support the economic growth of the commonwealth.

He added, however, that the new immigration policy does the opposite. According to Fitial, the cap on the level of foreign workers now in effect has already made it difficult to get needed alien labor for major construction projects in the Northern Marianas. He said foreign investors have backed out because they are unsure about their future access to adequate workforce.

Further, Fitial said the severe economic damage will result from a provision in the new immigration law, which requires the 20,000 foreign workers in the Northern Marianas to be under the federal visa system by Dec. 31, 2014, or some later date if the U.S. Secretary of Labor grants an extension to the transition period. Only a tiny fraction of existing alien workers in the commonwealth are expected to qualify for U.S. working visas.

The governor had previously indicated that he challenge the immigration law in federal court. In his State of the Commonwealth last month, he said he was consulting with local leaders about the possible lawsuit.

However, it appears from interviews with local leaders that the governor’s decision does not have much support.

“The government has a right to pursue what if feels is right for Saipan,” said James Arenovski, president of the Saipan Chamber of Commerce. However, he added that the Chamber of Commerce will continue efforts to prepare for the federal government’s plans to create new immigration regulations. “If ‘federalization’ happens, we want to be prepared,” he said.

Like the administration, the business organization opposed the passage of the federalization bill when it was being considered in the U.S. Congress.