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House increases controls on Marianas
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| Contributor | Servo |
| Last Edited | Servo Dec 11, 2007 05:06pm |
| Category | News |
| News Date | Dec 11, 2007 05:00pm |
| Description | he Marianas in the western Pacific, tainted by past associations with lobbyist Jack Abramoff and reports of sweatshop labor, would come under greater federal immigration and labor law controls with legislation that passed the House on Tuesday.
The bill, approved by voice vote, extends immigration law and creates a federally run guest-worker program in the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, which includes Saipan and 13 other islands north of Guam.
It would also give the commonwealth a delegate in the House with limited voting powers. Currently Guam, American Samoa, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and the District of Columbia have a delegate in the House. A similar bill is pending in the Senate.
The islands gained a reputation in the 1990s for garment factories where clothing, carrying "made in U.S." labels, was produced by foreign workers, often from China and the Philippines, under abusive, sweatshop conditions.
But congressional efforts to legislate reforms were blocked by disgraced former lobbyist Abramoff, working for the CNMI government, and his allies in Congress, including former Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas.
Now, said Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., Abramoff is in jail on unrelated fraud charges, DeLay is no longer in Congress and "we pass a bill that restores the human rights to those individuals working in the CNMI." |
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