Congressman George Miller (D-CA) spoke today in support of legislation to reform the immigration policy of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The bill was brought to the floor by Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick J. Rahall (D-WV) and Insular Affairs Subcommittee Chairwoman Donna Christensen (D-VI):

Since the early 1990s, I tried to bring legislation to the floor to reform the abusive labor practices and broken immigration policies of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, an American territory in the Pacific.

I 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.

But for more than a decade, a lobbyist by the name of Jack Abramoff joined then-Majority Leader Tom DeLay and others here in Congress to block my reform efforts.

Ten years ago this month, in fact, Tom DeLay visited the Mariana Islands and declared that our federal reforms “had no future” as long as he was in control of the House of Representatives.

But there’s a new Congress in town, and we have moved quickly to right the wrongs of the past.

Earlier this year, we raised the minimum wage across the country for the first time in almost a decade, and we gave the workers of the Northern Marianas a raise as well.

Thanks to that minimum wage increase, workers in the Marianas make $3.55 an hour, up from the barely three dollars that workers there were paid for years.

And what’s more, the minimum wage will continue to rise in the CNMI until their wage equals that of other American territories.

Today, my friend and committee colleague from the Virgin Islands (Ms. Christensen) has brought legislation to the floor to fix another long-standing problem in the CNMI.

The broken local immigration program in the CNMI has allowed unscrupulous recruiters to exploit and abuse thousands of workers The legislation we are considering today brings the CNMI within the federal immigration system so that we can end that exploitation and abuse.

The bill was drafted by the Bush Administration and improved by the Natural Resources Committee.

I congratulate Chairman Nick Rahall and Chairwoman Donna Christensen for bringing this legislation to the floor, and I want to thank Chairman John Conyers of the Judiciary Committee for helping improve it.

Jack Abramoff is in prison, and Tom DeLay has resigned in disgrace.

When we pass this bill by an overwhelming margin today, it will send a strong statement that the U.S. House is finally rid of the Abramoff/DeLay axis.

I strongly urge my colleagues to support this bill.

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