House Passes Bill Extending Immigration, Labor Laws To Marianas Islands

[seafan]

House Passes Bill Extending Immigration, Labor Laws To Marianas Islands

By Kris Alingod
December 11, 2007

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - After three decades of being blocked by lobbyist Jack Abramoff and former majority leader Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX), the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill on Tuesday extending federal immigration and labor laws to the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

The legislation, introduced last year by House Democrats led by Rep. George Miller (D-CA), will enlarge the scope of federal immigration and labor laws to include the Pacific Ocean archipelago composed of Saipan and 13 other islands north of Guam. The bill also establishes a federal guest-worker program that would gradually replace foreign worker permits, and gives the Marianas a delegate with limited voting powers in the House. Guam, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, the Virgin Islands and the District of Columbia currently have delegates to the legislative body.

The U.S. gained control of the Marianas, located 3,500 miles off the coast of Hawaii, after World War II. The archipelago has been been a U.S. territory since 1976 but has been exempt from federal immigration and labor laws.

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"This bill nails the coffin shut on the Abramoff era of undue political influence in the Congress," Natural Resources Chairman Nick Rahal (D-WV) told the Associated Press after the committee approval.

Abramoff was a lobbyist for the Marianas commonwealth government who enlisted the help of Delay and other lawmakers to ensure local control of immigration and minimum wage laws in the Marianas. Doing so protected the islands' right to use the "Made in the USA" label in its garment industry, which was worth $1 billion in 1999 but is now almost defunct due to the rapid growth of China's manufacturing industry. DeLay stepped down as majority leader after an indictment accused him of misusing campaign funds, and resigned from the House in June. Abramoff is serving a six-year jail sentence for unrelated charges of conspiracy, fraud and tax evasion.

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Day by day, restoring the rule of law, equity and human rights after stripping bare the corruption of the Bush Administration.... an effort of epic proportions lies ahead.

[bryant69]

1. Hmmmmm. I don't know about your commentary at the end

Three decades this problem has lain unsolved? It sits at the table of Bush, Clinton, Bush, Reagen, hell even Carter for a year or two. Or am I doing the math wrong?

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[seafan]

2. Abramoff and DeLay worked this racket for many years, spanning several administrations.

And for many of those years, Republicans controlled Congress by the throat.


Washington Post, June 7, 2006

.....

As a lobbyist for the Northern Marianas government and, subsequently, the garment industry on the main island of Saipan, Abramoff enlisted DeLay and other Republican leaders in a battle against the Clinton administration, human rights groups, labor unions and a bipartisan group of lawmakers to preserve local control over immigration and the minimum wage.

In a 2001 pitch letter obtained by The Washington Post, Abramoff boasted to the then-governor of the commonwealth that his lobbying team had worked with DeLay and other congressional leaders to bottle up reform legislation, stymied the efforts of Republican critics such as former Sen. Frank Murkowski of Alaska and obtained "extra CNMI appropriations" from Congress for infrastructure projects on the islands of Tinian and Rota.

Now that Abramoff is headed to prison for fraud in a separate case and DeLay is leaving the House under indictment for alleged political money laundering in Texas, Miller and his allies hope their efforts to rein in the commonwealth will finally succeed.

"For years, DeLay and Abramoff used their power and influence and corrupt practices to defend the indefensible," Miller said in a statement accompanying the introduction of his bill. "The House of Representatives failed to stop extraordinary abuses of poor women guest workers in the textile and tourism industries in the Marianas despite overwhelming evidence documented by the federal government, Congress, the news media and other sources."

He charged that DeLay, the former House majority leader, and Abramoff, a conservative Republican who became one of Washington's top lobbyists, "ignored well-documented threats to American security, criminal activity, violations of labor law, forced abortions and human trafficking" in the Northern Marianas.

"They were running a protection racket," Miller said. "DeLay and Abramoff protected the Marianas garment industry from congressional scrutiny and were rewarded handsomely for it with trips, lucrative contracts, campaign money and more. The most exploited women in the world, and the American legislative process, paid the price."

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Finally, we are seeing some daylight on this issue. And it's one of countless issues ahead that progressives will address.