Just like Andre the Giant, I need a posse.
On Thursday morning—February 8, 2007, the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources will hold a hearing in Room 366 of the Dirksen Office Building on the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
As I have documented many times, the corruption and abuse on the Mariana Islands has been (and continues to be) appalling.
As expected, the old guard—the Pirates of Saipan—are sending a delegation to testify at the Hearing. They will try and block legislation to extend US labor, immigration and custom laws to the rogue US Territory and they will try and block the increase in the minimum wage.
I’ll be at the Hearing, so will some others seeking justice for the CNMI like Wendy Doromal. It would be great to have some back-up. To fill the room as it were.
Can you be there? Can you join the posse...
Now I know that many of you can not be in Washington DC on Thursday morning. And I know that bringing justice to this far flung and dysfunctional corner of the American family does not have the draw of more hot button issues.
Still, if you have been following the growing Abramoff scandal and my Diaries on the scandal and the CNMI, you know it is important to end this abuse. It has been going on for more than twenty years and the CNMI/Abramoff issue had an impact last November. We defeated 20 of the Abramoff 65, a group of Republican candidates in 2006 I identified as having multiple connections to Jack Abramoff. I think we owe the guest workers on the CNMI some justice.
We also owe the indigenous peoples of the CNMI, American Samoa and the other Pacific Islands the opportunity to have a sustainable and thriving economy that is not rooted in exploitation, corruption and environmental destruction. We owe them a system with some measures of local control to protect their unique cultures from extinction.
The efforts to protect the status quo on the CNMI will only bring more injustice.
Since 1994, Republicans under Gingrich, DeLay, Bush and the rest of their power-hungry elites have protected a system of human trafficking, forced sex, sweatshops, labor abuse and money laundering on this rogue Western Pacific US Territory.
Recently, I have been hopeful that Justice is finally on its ways for the long-suffering guest workers of the CNMI. I’ve written about the passage of the Minimum Wage Bill and the coming Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on the CNMI. This should be good news, but I’ve also been worried.
The Senate Hearing will focus on the current state of affairs on the CNMI. It will examine questions of immigration, international crime, labor violations and more.
Twenty years of exploitation, corruption, and abuse have placed the CNMI on the verge of collapse and they need a new beginning. That is where we should focus our energy.
Fixing the long-standing problems of the Territory can only begin with the extension of US labor, immigration and custom laws to the CNMI and the increase to the minimum wage. Anything less than that, it a half measure guaranteed to fail and guaranteed to condemn more workers to abuse.
And yet, the old guard, the Pirates of Saipan, are coming to Washington DC. Even though they lack Abramoff and DeLay (but still have Doolittle) they are coming to town to run the same old playbook. The pushback is in progress. Their hope is to delay any extension of US labor, immigration and custom laws through more studies, more delays and more promises of reform.
As for the minimum wage, the Pirates of Saipan hope to create a wage review board—that they control—to set the minimum wage for the various industries on the CNMI.
All of their efforts to push back on reforms are based on sowing the seeds of fear—the fear that reforms will ruin the CNMI economy. That point of view will be strongly represented in the Senate Hearing room on Thursday.
The approach is wrong and here’s a NEWSFLASH for the old guard: the system based on human trafficking has already destroyed the CNMI economy and infrastructure.
I could use a posse.
If you can come to the Hearing you could be another Citizen witnessing for justice. You could see some CNMI Pirates, live and testifying jive. You may even see a few of them being place on the hot seat (a fella can dream).
If you can’t be there you can support the reform by asking your Senators and Member of Congress to support it. You might even ask the Presidential Candidates what they plan to do about it (especially Hillary Clinton who has a $10,000 CNMI problem to resolve).
Attending the Hearing with me will be Wendy Doromal I’ve written about her before. She was a school teacher on the island of Rota when the first guest worker knocked on her door twenty years ago with complaints of rape and abuse. She has written a statement for the Senate Energy and Resources Committee. She has given me permission to post it here.
She also passed on a recent e-mail from a "guest worker" on the CNMI. Both of these underscore why we need to reform the Mariana Islands.
Here is the "guest worker’s" letter:
Dear Madam,
Happy new year, i hope you are well but us those are alien worker staying here we are not really happy, the animals of zoo are more happy then us and reasons are:
- Minimum wages rate $ 3.05 after deduction of local and feds tax net wages is $2.723
- The power bill rate raised skyrise it was before 11cents per kw hour for residents and 16 cents for commercial but now resident rate is 23 cents and commercial rate is 30 cents which effected in the daily life, can't use air condition when came back to house after work and stop to use other electric equipment which also need to use.
- The commodities rates also raised just an example one sack of rice 10 lb. $ 5.00 now
- The gasoline price also raised very high $3.139 Regular for one gallon so effected it and the daily life.
- About four years we are not getting our tax rebates.
- The Labour dept. passed a bill for reduced working hours from 40hrs to 32 hrs. weekly after impact of 9/11 still they are implementing the same with out reason.
- They proposed for three years limits law for the alien worker.
- They always delayed the issue of entry permit that's why alien worker can't visit to their home country in time, some times misunderstanding occurred with loved ones.
- The crimes are going up day by day aliens are not getting right help from some law enforcement personnel especially if suspects are local.
Due to bad situation in here some aliens are trying to enter in Guam(USA) for bright life
Recently seven alien workers victims of recruitment scam they paid $6000.00 each to recruiters in China to work on Saipan as a garment or hotel worker but when arrived here they learned that the jobs promised them didn't exist. After their arrival two of them were offered jobs as prostitutes and others were offered jobs as night club or karoke workers in Tinian. The labour and immigration are not careful.
Hundred of workers who lost their jobs when concord Garments Factory permenently closed early this month.
Lot of local people are doing fixed marriage business even they married two with alien or tourist to stay here long time labour and immigration are not careful.
The administration is trying to hire a DC lobbyist to block the extension of federal minimum wage and immigration law to island which the new democratic leadership of congress vows to pass in January 2007 despite the cash strapped CNMI government.
They declared bankrupcy --source local media.
Some 5000 thousands alien workers has plan to gather in front of Feds office at Garapan to support Congressman Mr. Miller bill HR.5550 which would solve aliens long time problem.
May God bless you.
Thanks
K
And here is Wendy’s statement to the Committee:
Statement of Wendy L. Doromal
Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Full Committee Hearing:
Conditions in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands
Thursday, February 8, 2007, 09:30 AM
Energy Committee Hearing Room - SD-366
Thank you for the opportunity to present my views to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources which has jurisdiction over matters affecting territories of the United States. From 1984 to 1995 I lived and worked as a teacher in the US Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. I witnessed appalling labor and human rights abuses of contract workers who came from their homelands to work in the United States. They came from the Philippines, China, Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Russia, Pakistan, and other Asian countries. They sold their land, houses and businesses to pay up to $7,000 in recruitment fees for a chance to live the American dream. But too many of these workers lived a nightmare instead. My family was forced to flee from the islands in 1995 due to death threats, assaults and terrible harassment that came about because our human rights work on behalf of these victims. Before we left, I promised the workers that I would continue to appeal to US government leaders to extend United States minimum wage, immigration, labor and customs laws to the CNMI. I am ashamed to tell you that 12 years after I made this promise I am still pleading with US government officials to fulfill this promise and finally put an end to the abuses.
It has been over 2 decades since I first alerted US government officials about abuses of foreign contract workers in the US Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). It has been12 years since I was invited to testify at the May 1995 Senate Hearing concerning matters of labor and human rights abuses in the CNMI. At the hearing in 1995, I spoke of the urgent need to address the plight of the foreign contract workers who were subjected to human, labor and civil rights abuses; non-existent or reluctant prosecution of abusive employers; the lack of a strong federal presence in the islands; and the necessity to apply federal immigration and minimum wage laws to the CNMI. These pleas were ignored or only minimally addressed. The abuses were allowed to continue.
In early 1998, I spent 18 days in the CNMI leading a team of human rights advocates and US labor attorneys, to assess the situation and status of the foreign contract workers. We determined that the situation was at crisis level. In testimony presented at the March 31, 1998 Senate Hearing, numerous credible witnesses, from a Cabinet member to foreign contract workers, testified that there was an urgent need for the US Congress to enact reform legislation. My written testimony and the March 1998 Status Report on Human Rights and Labor Abuses in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands stressed the critical need for action to address the escalating abuses. It underscored grave problems including an increase in the trafficking of minor girls from China and the Philippines for the purpose of sexual exploitation and forced prostitution; the illegal flow of Chinese workers from the CNMI into Guam posing a threat to national security; continuing problems with the garment industry; and the increase of illegal and unemployed foreign workers in the CNMI and the problems they faced including fraudulent recruitment practices, payless paydays, substandard living conditions, and severe malnutrition and health problems.
In 1998, as in 1995, I urged the United States government to fulfill its responsibility to protect the voiceless majority and to uphold the reputation of the United States as a defender of human rights, by implementing much needed legislation and reform. My testimony concluded, "There is no time left for procrastination, debate or political maneuvers. People’s well-being and lives depend upon the urgent attention and action from the United States Congress. It is wrong to ignore, deny or allow these serious problems to continue to escalate. It is wrong to allow human suffering when it can be prevented. It is wrong to make misery, oppression and exploitation of 42,000 people a political issue. It is wrong; it is un-American; and it is a scar on the face of our great nation and the noble principles that it represents. I implore you to do the right thing." Again, little action was taken, as the US Congress failed again at its responsibility to enact legislation to correct the crisis. The abuses were allowed to continue.
The already urgent situation was exacerbated by the fact that in 1995, the CNMI government hired lobbyist Jack Abramoff to cover up the severity of abuses and the failure of the CNMI to effectively control immigration and customs issues, and to prevent federal reform legislation from being enacted. Jack Abramoff’s billing records to the CNMI, clearly reveal that dozens of members of the US Congress and CNMI officials worked as co-conspirators with Abramoff to successfully block CNMI reform legislation in exchange for trips to the CNMI, campaign contributions, and political favors. Letters written to the House Ethics Committee and members of Congress questioning ethics violations were ignored. Despite sincere efforts of members of Congress from both political parties, the CNMI, with Abramoff’s help, blocked reform legislation as the crisis spiraled out of control. The abuses were allowed to continue.
Today in 2007, the Senate is once again examining issues relating to labor, immigration, law enforcement, and economic conditions in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Decades have passed since human rights advocates, attorneys, US government officials, and concerned citizens first alerted the US Congress to abuses and corruption in the CNMI. It is my view that the time for examination has long passed; the time for action is long overdue. Justice delayed has not only resulted in justice denied, but in the perpetuation of needless suffering for thousands of innocent victims trapped within a corrupt system. The time has long passed for the thousands of victims of human rights and labor abuses to receive justice. It has passed for the young women from the Philippines and China who were trafficked into the sex trade. For the Bangladesh men who were victims of recruitment scams and found themselves penniless and jobless in a strange land. The time has passed for the Asian workers who suffered from workplace abuses such as unpaid wages, indentured servitude, housing violations, contract violations, and discrimination. It has passed for the workers who fell victim to criminal acts such as rape, torture, false imprisonment, and assault and battery. For those who endured human rights abuses such as forced abortion, forced prostitution, and being denied the right to practice their religion. The time has passed for investigations, examinations, and the compiling of statistics and reports. It is time to finally act, because despite all of the past pleas, reports, statistics, investigations and evidence presented to the Congress, it has failed to take the necessity steps to stop the abuses so they continue to this day.
Some of the very issues that cried out for reform and were exposed at 1995 and 1998 Senate Hearings have still not been resolved by either the CNMI or federal governments. They include:
Chinese Smuggling
A December 19, 2006 local CNMI newspaper reported that11 Chinese were arrested for attempting to sneak into Guam. A year earlier 14 Chinese stowaways were intercepted for the same crime. These figures represent the ones that were caught. The CNMI is a gateway to the United States that will be closed when federal immigration law is extended to the CNMI.
Forced Prostitution
Incidents of females recruited from the Philippines and China to work as waitresses or garment workers and then forced into prostitution continues. The Marianas Variety reported in a December 7, 2006 article that a study conducted by the Northern Marianas College concluded that there are over 1, 500 prostitutes in Saipan. Numerous newspaper articles tell of women, some minors, forced into prostitution while employed in clubs and restaurants. Human trafficking of minors and forced prostitution will stop when US immigration laws are finally implemented in the CNMI.
Recruitment Scams
In a May 2006 editorial in the Saipan Tribune, the Federal Ombudsman reported that recruitment scams where workers are charged high recruitment fees for nonexistent jobs expand beyond the garment industry to include farmers, commercial cleaners, domestic workers, construction workers, waitresses and accountants. He reported that about 55 cases of illegal recruitment had been referred to the Department of Labor and the Attorney General's Office for investigation. A November 5, 2006 article in a local paper reported that 7 Chinese women paid some $6,000 each to recruiters in China to work on Saipan as garment or hotel workers, but when they arrived in Saipan they learned that the jobs they had been promised did not exist. They were later offered jobs as prostitute, masseuses or club workers. Recruitment scams will stop when US immigration law is enforced in the CNMI.
Labor Complaints
Unresolved Workers have consistently complained over the past decades that their labor complaints drag out for years or are never resolved. Many workers are forced to return to their homelands without receiving wages owed or other compensation. Last year, the CNMI Department of Labor cited a 46% closure rate for labor complaints. It was reported that there were 4,417 total complaints filed from 1997 to 2006 with a total of 2,151 of these complaints remaining unresolved as of January 2007. A February 7, 2007 article in the Saipan Tribune stated that $2.4 million in the class action against the CNMI garment industry and certain retailers remained unclaimed. There are 16,719 workers who did not receive their outstanding checks that total $2,660,609.03. Labor complaints will be reduced with implementation of federal immigration and labor laws.
A Collapsing Economy
A December 22, 2006 Marianas Variety article reported that a legislative report declared the CNMI government as bankrupt and claimed "the only reason it cannot declare bankruptcy is that it cannot do so under existing laws." Tourism arrivals have continued on a steady decline since 1998. With six garment factories closing within the last 12 months, garment industry sales dropped by $170 million (26%) in calendar year 2006 compared to 2005. The Tan owned Concorde factory closed after 23 years, leaving 1,400 non-resident workers unemployed. Local residents are reportedly leaving the islands to find jobs in the Guam, Hawaii, or the mainland even though tens of thousands of foreign contract workers are employed in the CNMI. Applying the minimum wage to the CNMI will help stop the departure of local residents and boost the crumbling economy.
Minimum Wage
Domestic workers, farmers and fishermen earning $300 monthly or $.96 an hour, and other foreign contract workers earning $3.05 an hour report that they cannot afford to purchase everyday necessities as prices for commodities continue to rise. In a recent email [see above], a worker from Bangladesh told me that he cannot afford to run air conditioning or electrical appliances because of sky high utility rates. Raising the minimum wage is humane and long overdue.
Health Concerns
A March 15, 2006 Saipan Tribune article stated thattuberculosis remains a serious threat in the CNMI with over 500 cases being diagnosed since 1998. The CNMI has the highest TB rate in the United States. With the enactment of federal immigration law, effective health screening would reduce the chances of foreigners entering the Commonwealth with contagious and dangerous diseases.
Faltering Infrastructure
The current state of the CNMI not only adversely affects foreign contract workers, but the resident population as well. The infrastructure cannot adequately support the population as is evidenced by constant power outages, aninadequate water system, and public buildings, including schools, in need of repair.
There is talk that the Senate will postpone needed reforms once again to allow the CNMI yet another chance to claim that they will institute reform locally –perhaps through a local Wage Review Board. This should not even be considered and would be one more dangerous mistake. Such action would repeat the errors of the past, and needlessly perpetuate abuses. The CNMI has demonstrated over and over again that it is incapable of instituting reform and ending the exploitation of foreign contract workers. The CNMI government claimed that they wanted to maintain control of immigration and the minimum wage to protect the indigenous people and their culture. Why then are they now a minority in their own land with a collapsed economy?
Increasing the minimum wage to the federal minimum wage and extending federal immigration laws to the islands is the bare minimum required now. There is no more time to delay justice and refine the process at the risk of further suffering. Refinements can be done later, after the federal government has fulfilled the responsibility of finally implementing the federal minimum wage and immigration laws. Nothing less is inhumane and irresponsible.
For decades the commonwealth government has abused the privilege of maintaining local control of immigration and the minimum wage by firmly establishing an elitist, exclusive government and society. The system has fed the pockets of leaders, politicians and businessmen while exploiting the powerless and the voiceless. Today, as it was when I left the islands, foreign contract workers make up the majority of the population of the CNMI, but live as a disenfranchised underclass. While they contribute to the good of society and pay taxes, they have no voice in decisions that will affect them, cannot serve on juries, and are excluded from some government social programs. Today there are an estimated 84,000 people in the CNMI and only 15,000 can vote. The last time guest workers outnumbered the citizens on U.S. soil it was called slavery. The time to implement and enforce federal minimum wage, immigration, labor and custom laws in the CNMI is clearly overdue. I believe that this legislation is crucial and should be embraced by a united, nonpartisan Congress in support of democracy, human rights and justice. I urge you to act now.
Sincerely,
Wendy L. Doromal
I’ve added links to Wendy’s examples. I could add dozens and dozens more.
We have to end this abuse.
Embracing a corrupt system out of fear will not solve the problems on the CNMI for guest workers and the indigenous population.
Only dialogue and reform will do it. This will call for new thinking here in Washington and on the CNMI. It will call for open hearts and open minds. I’m ready to engage, but we all have to demonstrate a real commitment to justice and ending the abuse to begin the rebirth of the CNMI.
And the only way to do that after twenty years of failure and corruption is to clean house.
And that includes the extension of US labor, immigration and custom laws and the minimum wage to the CNMI.
In the scheme of things the problems of the CNMI are small. I mean, we can’t seem to do the big things like Iraq, New Orleans, the Climate Crisis, the economy, etc., so my quest to call attention to the troubles of this far away place is quixotic. And yet, I hope that we will pay attention. I hope that we will bring a new dawn to the CNMI and a future built on a just and sustainable economy that works for all. I hope a victory here will inspire new victories on the mainland.
So come and join my posse.
There are massive problems and we have a Country to take back and a planet to save (literally, the Climate Crisis is real).
2007 is now. Let’s get to work.
Cheers.
Update
Three quick things:
1: The witness list for the Hearing is up at the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources website. The Hearing begins at 9:30 am EST. If you click the live webcast link at the end of the column on the left, you should be able to watch the Hearing.
2: By the end of the month Allen Stayman and Josh Johnson of the Senate Committee will travel to the CNMI with Alex Gisser of Homeland Security. They will be asking Gov. Ben Fitial some questions. Today’s Marianas Variety had the money quote (emphasis added):
Acting Speaker Justo A. Quitugua, D-Saipan, said "because they will be sending the counsel for Homeland Security, I am assuming that they would like to check on how our security works and make that a justification for controlling our immigration. What they will probably say is that if they continue to give CNMI control of immigration then it may not be in the best interest of the U.S. national security because under our system, we let anybody come in and the U.S. Congress may not be content with this arrangement as this may affect national security."
3: The old guard has managed to collect a "whopping" 300 signatures on a petition to maintain the status quo. And it is not clear that every signature was an endorsement of the elites who have been running the CNMI into the ground. Most just wanted Congress to talk with folks from the CNMI before imposing changes. Here is how the Marianas Variety reported the amazing stretches of logic employed by the Our Commonwealth group to support maintaining a system that fails all but the corrupt:
"We are not similar to California or New York or Washington, D.C. or even Hawaii or Guam, and it would be unfair to attempt a comparison...Our way of life is necessarily and vastly different than that in the 50 states. Think about this before making changes at a pace that will destroy what viable economy remains," said Our Commonwealth. [snip]
"Understand the successes and failures of our past, as well as the challenges of our future. If you believe we have failed ourselves in the past, we ask that you do not fail us in the present," Our Commonwealth told the members of the U.S. Congress.
It added, "Please do not attempt to fix what you may perceive as our failures without a real understanding, a careful study, and a meaningful dialogue with us, the people of the Commonwealth."
300 signatures from a population of over 84,000 does not strike me as very significant. Perhaps support for the old Pirates of Saipan is fading. Perhaps the only support they ever had was from Chinese entrepreneurs and corrupt Republicans in Washington.
Thanks for the good wishes about the Hearing and I hope to see some of you there.
Cheers