Jon L. Christensen: “H.R. 3079 is legislation which I introduced, along with Natural Resources Chairman Nick Rahall, on July 18 of this year.…”

“H.R. 3079 is legislation which I introduced, along with Natural Resources Chairman Nick Rahall, on July 18 of this year. The Insular Subcommittee held two hearings on the matters addressed in this bill. The first, in April, was an oversight hearing on the current economic, social, and security conditions in the Northern Marianas. The second, in August, was a legislative field hearing held in the CNMI. It was the first time a congressional committee convened officially in the U.S. territory. H.R. 3079 responds to a number of outstanding issues that have been a concern of this Congress, the people of the CNMI as well, and successive administrations beginning with President Reagan. It is no secret that beginning in the 1990s, the CNMI came under great criticism for its immigration policies which left the territory with a nationwide, if not also an international, reputation. Undercover investigations by national media, reports by human rights organizations, complaints received from foreign governments, and a report issued by the former chairman and ranking member, George Miller, detailed a miscarriage of CNMI immigration policy which left foreign guest workers open to abuse by their employers.”