Whoops. Just days after Republican Senate candidate Bob Schaffer touted the Northern Mariana Islands as a model for a national guest worker program, the Senate voted overwhelmingly to pass a massive omnibus bill that included a provision to overhaul the Marianas’ immigration laws. The bill passed on a 91-4 vote.
The bill will extend U.S. immigration laws to the islands and establish a federally administered guest worker program there — quite the opposite of what Schaffer said he thought ought to happen: “I think members of Congress ought to be looking at that model and be considering it as a possible basis for a nationwide program.”
The reason for the overwhelming vote, of course, is because the islands are notorious for human rights abuses, particularly the exploitation of guest workers in slave labor conditions. Lobbyist Jack Abramoff, with the help of key House Republicans like ex-Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX), was able to squelch similar legislation for years, even despite bipartisan support in the Senate.
Of course one of his main tools for persuading lawmakers was sponsoring trips over to the islands. As The Denver Post detailed today, Schaffer, then a congressman, traveled there in 1999 in an Abramoff-planned trip and declared himself unconcerned with what he found: “The workers were smiling; they were happy.” That’s a picture from his visit above.
Update: Ouch. In a statement just out from Rep. George Miller (D-CA), who has been seeking to pass such legislation for literally a decade, he applauds passage of the bill and notes that with Abramoff and DeLay gone, “[v]ery few people would defend the status quo in the CNMI, which has done such damage to workers and their families over the years.” Except Bob Schaffer.
Miller’s full statement is below.
“Today, the Senate passed a bill to end the broken immigration system in the CNMI and help begin to restore human rights to individuals working there. The Senate’s good work today marks the first time that both the House and Senate have approved legislation closing the legal loopholes that have allowed some of the poorest men and women in the world to be lured to the CNMI, abused, and exploited in sweatshops in this American territory.
“For more than a decade, a lobbyist by the name of Jack Abramoff joined then-Majority Leader Tom Delay (R-TX) and others in Congress to block our reform efforts. We sought these changes so that we could put a stop to the well-documented and widespread abuse of poor men and women in the garment and tourism industry in the CNMI and to better secure America’s borders.
“Jack Abramoff is now in prison and Tom Delay has resigned in disgrace. Very few people would defend the status quo in the CNMI, which has done such damage to workers and their families over the years.
“Coupled with the increase in the minimum wage that we enacted last year, this bill will help put an end to the old practices and, I hope, will help the CNMI open a new chapter of economic prosperity in compliance with American law.”