Greetings my Dear People of the Northern Mariana Islands,
My name is Gregorio "Kilili" Camacho Sablan and I am a candidate for the position of Delegate to the United States Congress.
I chose this endeavor because I feel that there is a great and urgent need to get our Commonwealth back onto the path that we as a people chose over 30 years ago when we approved the Covenant in a plebiscite by over 78 percent.
The Covenant sets forth our vision, hopes, and aspirations as a people, and as a Commonwealth. The Covenant contains the two fundamental promises made by the Federal government for our people - and by our people for ourselves: the promise of Economic Self Sufficiency and the promise of Self Government. These are tremendous promises – these are the promises of freedom, of a free people.
These kinds of freedom are not easy to achieve but we have achieved in our Commonwealth the Covenant’s promise of local self governance. We have a Constitution of our making and design. We make local decisions in how we govern ourselves. We have achieved something great in this respect.
However, the Covenant’s promise of economic self sufficiency remains elusive, and I believe that my principal responsibility as Delegate will be to fulfill this promise. I will work closely with the Federal government to advocate for legislation and policy that will help our economy here in the Commonwealth. Hence, I will work hard to secure Federal funding that will help our people and build strong relationships with Federal lawmakers, educating them about our Commonwealth’s unique economy.
I, therefore, present to you a number of issues that will receive my immediate attention if I am elected Delegate to the U.S. Congress.
I will make sure that Federal lawmakers understand the crucial role of tourism in our economy, and draft regulations implementing U.S. immigration laws that will take into consideration our reliance on tourists from foreign countries. A good part of our visitors are from China and Russia and the application of U.S. federal immigration laws and policies would be very problematic for such visitors. Difficulty in obtaining visas to enter the Commonwealth is a problem and those visitors who do qualify for visas will also qualify to enter Guam.
While we hope that those who choose to travel to Guam will also travel to our islands, we stand to lose up to 100,000 tourists because of this new visa restriction. And while supporting our obligation to keep out any threats to our national security, federalization of our immigration is a very serious matter that will affect not just our tourism industry but our economy in general. Hence, the drafting of regulations that will govern our federalized immigration system here in the CNMI is a matter that will require my immediate and special attention if elected Delegate to the U.S. Congress.
