Hafa Adai CNMI! I hate for this to be my debut “return to the press” piece, but I feel so strongly about this particular subject that I could not let another day pass without writing this letter.
I am writing this letter in response to a letter that was written by Susana Blas Deleon Guerrero, the president of the CNMI Women’s Association, on Friday, July 15, 2011. This letter will cover many points that she mentioned in her letter and explain why I, as a human being, believe they are misguided statements or otherwise simply inaccurate.
In her fifth paragraph, she mentions that the CNMI indigenous people who attended the hearings for the implementation of Public Law 110-229 rejected “any improved status of thousands of aliens.” She says that the reason behind this “is not that those in opposition refuse aliens to have some status, but the people oppose being displaced in their own ancestral homeland.” Unfortunately, I don’t think she understands the meaning of the word “displaced.” According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the definition of “displace” is: to remove from the usual or proper place; specifically :to expel or force to flee from home or homeland. Now, I may be wrong, but I don’t think that any foreigners who have come to the CNMI to work have gone around forcing locals to flee from their homeland. Have any of you seen a contract worker holding a gun up to a Chamorro or Carolinian’s head and telling them that they need to leave the islands or die? If you have, please let me know so I can stand corrected.
Now, some of you might be thinking at this point, “Why use such an extreme example?” I used the gunpoint example because when I was in the military, all my superiors would ask us during hard times if anyone forced us to sign the dotted line and join the service. To those who would say “Yes,” they would respond, “No one forced you to join the military. Did anyone hold a gun up to your head and tell you that you had better sign on the dotted line if you want to live? No? Then no one forced you to do anything, and you did it completely of your own free will. Now you must live with the consequences.” So, Ms. Deleon Guerrero, you can claim that the indigenous people of the CNMI are being displaced by the foreign contract workers all you like, but all it will ever amount to is a claim, because according to the dictionary definition of the word “displace,” your statement simply is not true.
She then makes the claim that most of the 30,000 U.S. citizens residing in the CNMI are Chamorro and Carolinian, but she immediately follows that claim with saying that there are approximately 23,000 aliens residing in the CNMI. She says that “it is arguable that there are more aliens residing in the CNMI than there are indigenous Chamorro and Carolinians.” This simply cannot be logically sound, based on what she has written. If there are approximately 23,000 aliens residing in the CNMI, and even just half of them are married couples who have children born on island, and if the average household has 3 children, then that equals about 17,000 non-Chamorro or Carolinian U.S. citizen children. This number is over half of 30,000, therefore, I do not see how she can honestly say that most of the U.S. citizens in CNMI are Chamorro or Carolinian.
She tries to avoid blaming the CNMI Department of Labor and Immigration by saying that “many agencies over the years have failed to control the immigration of aliens into the CNMI.” Now, I may be wrong, but I was under the impression that until the federal takeover, the CNMI DOLI was the sole authority on foreign people entering and exiting the Commonwealth. I honestly don’t know 100%, so if I was under the wrong impression, please, do let me know.
She then talks about the live births in the islands from 1990 to May 2011, and she goes into the demographics of it all, saying “out of 31,180 live births, 18,431 were of Filipino, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Thai, Indian, Nepalese, Bangladesh Taiwanese, Vietnamese, Malaysian, Burmese, and Sri Lankan descent.” I fail to see where this is a problem, but apparently it is a huge problem for her, as she goes on to say that “This appalling number of 18,481 live births of aliens in the CNM has begun to disenfranchise the local indigenous population.” Disenfranchise? I’m beginning to wonder if she truly understands the meaning of the words that she is using, because I, for one, cannot see how the children born to alien workers are disenfranchising the local indigenous population.
Let’s refer back to the Merriam-Webster dictionary for the definition of this word: to deprive of a franchise, of a legal right, or of some privilege or immunity; especially : to deprive of the right to vote. Can someone please tell me how the births of all these children (whom she also wrongly calls “aliens”) in the CNMI has deprived any of the local indigenous population of their right to vote? If there is something going on in the shadows that I don’t know of where children born to alien workers are preventing local indigenous people from voting, then I am sorry for my ignorance in this matter. Also, I must say that it is a shame that she thinks of the children born to aliens as also being aliens. These are children, mind you, who were born and raised in the CNMI as U.S. citizens and have contributed to the society just as much, if not more, than the average Chamorro or Carolinian child. Take, for example, John Edward M. Elenzano, who was recently credited with an NMI first when he took home the gold while representing the CNMI at the NFL Nationals in Dallas, Texas. Is he simply just another “alien” to you, Ms. Deleon Guerrero? Because to me, he is a CNMI youth hero and a bright example of how the youth of our islands should be.
In her next paragraph, she says that H.R. 1466 will have a negative impact on the amount of social programs that will be available to local residents. What exactly is her definition of “local?” I’m pretty sure if someone is born and raised in a particular place, that makes them “local,” doesn’t it? I know I’ve always considered myself a “local” of Saipan. Even here in the continental U.S., when people I meet ask me where I’m from, I always tell them I’m from Saipan. That is home to me, and that is the only place in this world where I would consider myself to be a “local.”
She goes on to say that “H.R. 1466 will also place the local indigenous population at a disadvantage in terms of employment and voting in local elections.” I’m sorry, but I’ve got some bad news for her: H.R. 1466 has absolutely nothing to do with putting the local indigenous population at a disadvantage in terms of employment. Unfortunately, the local indigenous population put themselves at a disadvantage in terms of employment when they chose to look to foreign lands to provide the CNMI with a workforce. This created the separation of “classes of jobs,” i.e. the jobs that indigenous locals were more than happy to do, and the jobs that they absolutely refused to do. This led us to the situation we are in today, where the contract workers take whatever jobs they can, which usually, if not always, fall into the first category, and the indigenous locals take up all the government jobs. Please don’t go blaming H.R. 1466 for something that you all brought upon yourselves.
As far as her saying that H.R. 1466 will place the local indigenous people at a disadvantage in terms of voting, well, hey, that’s democracy and fairness at work. These people (because that’s what they are, PEOPLE, not ALIENS) deserve nothing less than a voice in the community that they live in and have been living in and contributing to for many, many years. If you disagree with that, then I’d have to say that you’re trying to bring slavery back into the U.S., but instead of using African-Americans as slaves, you’re using Filipinos, Chinese, Koreans, Japanese, Thais, Indians, Nepalese...you get the picture.
The last of her statements that I’m going to address is found in her second to last paragraph, where she says, “Not only will H.R. 1466 displace thousands of indigenous Chamorro and Carolinian people, it will also deprive them of full potential benefits from social programs and another small benefits provided by the CNMI government...” I’ve already covered the displacement thing, so we won’t revisit that here. Instead, I’d like to focus on the racist aspect of this statement. Essentially, what she’s saying here is that ONLY Chamorro and Carolinian people are entitled to benefits from social programs and other benefits provided by the CNMI government. Last I checked, we are all human beings here, so what, exactly, makes these legal alien workers so different from the Chamorro and Carolinian people, that they do not deserve to receive the benefits from social programs as well? Obviously, they can’t receive the “other small benefits” provided by the CNMI government, since they aren’t local indigenous people with relatives working for the government who can hook them up with jobs and whatever else “other small benefits” covers. But they do at least deserve every bit of benefit from the same social programs that Chamorros and Carolinians enjoy.
We are all human beings here. It matters not what color your skin is, what country you came from, what god(s) you worship, or what political affiliations you possess. What matters is that everyone gets the same chance to succeed and that everyone is treated fairly and equally. A human being deserves nothing less than that. To be against H.R. 1466 is to be against giving human beings the voice that they deserve. It is to be against the very same fairness and equality declared by the United States Declaration of Independence’s famous opening line: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal...”
In closing, she says that they “humbly and sincerely ask your committee to think of our indigenous Chamorro and Carolinian people of the CNMI.” Well, for my closing, I humbly and sincerely ask you all to think of our fellow human beings who have been working for us, building our roads and buildings, handling our garbage, washing our clothes, cleaning our offices, and bringing revenue to our local business establishments over the years. They are just as much a part of our society as you and I are, and they deserve the same rights that are afforded to us. Don’t let racism get the best of you, when you know in your heart that they deserve the same rights that you enjoy having. After all, you wouldn’t want these rights to be kept from you if you were in their place and you knew you deserved nothing less for everything you’ve done.
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For those of you who are interested, you can read her original letter to the editor here: http://www.mvariety.com/2011071438469/letter-to-the-editor/letter-to-the-editor-testimony-regarding-h.r.-1466.php
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