Northern Mariana Islands Long-Term Legal Residents Relief Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. SABLAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me time.

Mr. Speaker, 12 years ago, Congress enacted legislation extending U.S. immigration law to my district, the Northern Mariana Islands; and for my 11 years here in Congress, I have worked to make the resulting transition as least difficult as possible.

Because there were unforeseen consequences, there were people who fell through the cracks. Today we have the chance to help some of those people. Their circumstances were not taken into account when Federal immigration was extended to our islands.

During the Obama administration, they were granted humanitarian parole that allowed them to stay. But President Trump decided that was an improper use of parole.

The President's executive order of January 25, 2017, directed that parole be granted only on a case-by-case basis not to categories of people, as had been done in the Marianas.

As a result, 1,039 long-term residents of my island lost their parole status last December. They were given until June 29 to adjust status or leave.

I have no argument with the President's thinking. In fact, I have worked to provide permanent status in law for these long-term residents. But immigration legislation is difficult. I have not been successful.

I hope today that will change because even though the Trump administration ended parole, at the same time, the administration also recognized that these long-term residents should be allowed to stay in the Marianas. The administration drafted legislation giving these people permanent status in the Marianas, and just in the Marianas, so they could continue to live and work as they have for years as part of our community.

I introduced that legislation, H.R. 559, and the administration submitted a statement for the hearing record to the Natural Resources Committee supporting passage, which I include in the Record.

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Mr. SABLAN. Mr. Speaker, let me read from the administration's letter. ``H.R. 559 would provide for the admission of certain aliens who are currently present in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, CNMI, and who had been parolees. . . . In doing so, the bill would establish an alternative regime to the now-terminated categorical parole program for the CNMI. DHS believes that the bill would address the discrete needs of this alien group in an equitable and lawful manner. . . . It is the Department's hope that the full House of Representatives will take up and pass the measure expeditiously.'' Signed: Christine M. Ciccone, Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs, Department of Homeland Security.

To be completely transparent, the bill before us has been altered slightly from the original. The bill now includes an administrative appeal procedure if an applicant believes an error was made in processing their petition for permanent status. But that new language was also drafted, at my request, by the administration. So the bill remains 100 percent as drafted by the administration.

Again, the bill provides permanent status in the Marianas only, with no right of entry to any other part of the United States and no right to any public assistance, to a small group of people who have lived and worked in the Marianas, always lawfully present, since before U.S. immigration law was ever extended to our islands.

The Trump administration agrees. These individuals should be allowed to stay, but not by administrative fiat. They should be allowed to stay under the rule of law.

Today, I ask my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to pass that law. Do as the administration advises. Vote ``yes'' on H.R. 559.

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