At the request of U.S. Senator Daniel K. Akaka (D-Hawaii), the General Accounting Office (GAO) has completed a report reviewing procedures used by the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands for controlling the flow of aliens and goods into the CNMI. The GAO report, "Northern Mariana Islands: Procedures for Processing Aliens and Merchandise," found problems continue with immigration, customs, and health services and systems in the commonwealth.
"The GAO report highlights persistent and ongoing problems in the CNMI arising from the commonwealth's failed immigration policies," Akaka noted. "Congress must act to address immigration abuses in the commonwealth. The bipartisan legislation passed by the Senate provides for balanced and reasonable reforms to deal with abuses that continue to embarrass the United States."
An outline of the problems identified by the GAO on immigration, customs, and social services follows:
Immigration:
CNMI does not require visas for people entering, nor does it have the ability to prescreen all aliens.
CNMI has no firm data on the number of illegal aliens in the CNMI.
Between 1996-1999, CNMI excluded 929 aliens from entry but cannot account for the reasons for the exclusions because of inadequate data.
Law enforcement agencies in the Philippines and China do not provide the results of criminal background checks to the CNMI Department of Law and Immigration (DOLI).
CNMI as yet does not have a computerized system for monitoring arrivals and departures and instead tracks immigration manually. CNMI also relies on employers to report aliens who remain in CNMI beyond their employment periods. Employers may not report overstaying aliens because they could then avoid paying them a legal wage. Between 1995-1999, CNMI deported 964 aliens.
In 1999, aliens accounted for over 50 percent of the population of Saipan, 26 percent of the public health care expenditures, 11 percent of public school operating costs, and between 44 percent and 69 percent of the arrests for the five most frequent crimes in the CNMI.
A law took effect in March 1998 imposing a moratorium on the hiring of alien workers but the Governor has already granted 2,384 exemptions to the law. The CNMI House of Representatives recently passed a bill which would eliminate the moratorium on alien hires and repeal the cap on the number of alien workers in the garment industry.
Customs:
U.S. Customs Service made eight recommendations for improving CNMI Customs' inspection procedures in September 1998. CNMI has complied fully with only two of those recommendations.
GAO's investigators witnessed an employee of a garment industry in the CNMI customs area using an official CNMI Customs stamp to certify his factory's export documents in contravention of the US Customs Service 1998 recommendations.
US Customs officials have identified gaps in CNMI Customs procedures which would allow illegal export transshipments to occur: containers are only randomly reviewed on export and CNMI Customs agents do not routinely physically verify quantities of garments exported.
Health and Welfare:
The rapid influx of poorly screened and monitored alien workers is contributing to growing rates of TB, HIV/AIDS, and syphilis which are a threat to the overall population of the CNMI.
CNMI's current health system was developed to meet a population of 20,000 - the current population is over 71,000.
Because of the unanticipated rapid population growth, the CNMI's health care system can not provide adequate service.
The CNMI Department of Public Health cannot report the true incidences of HIV and syphilis - despite a requirement that aliens receive a physical exam paid for by employers. The CNMI government has collected $1.3 million in health certificate fees since instituting the Alien Health Screening Program instituted in February 1998.
Aliens are reluctant to use Department of Public Health facilities for treatment. While accounting for 58 percent of the population of Saipan, they accounted for between 26 and 29 percent of the patient visits each year during 1994 through 1999.
CNMI has been cutting funds to public schools despite increases in the student population.
CNMI does not have any practical means to verify the criminal histories of arriving alien workers.
In February, 2000, the Senate passed bipartisan legislation sponsored by Senator Akaka and Senator Frank H. Murkowski (R-Alaska), chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. The bipartisan measure, the Northern Mariana Islands Covenant Implementation Act (S. 1052), would impose U.S. immigration law on the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands to address continuing immigration abuses in the CNMI.
S. 1052 grants a ten-year transition period for full application of the Immigration Act to the CNMI to lessen any economic disruption to the Commonwealth. It contains a one-time grandfather provision for guest workers employed long-term (4 years). The bill authorizes a technical assistance program for training and recruitment and to promote CNMI economic diversification. The bill is pending consideration by the House of Representatives.
The GAO report, "Northern Mariana Islands: Procedures for Processing Aliens and Merchandise" (GAO/GGD-00-97) will be available online June 26, 2000, at http://www.gao.gov.
