TRAFFICKING AND EXPLOITATION IN THE MARIANAS ISLANDS

Neil Pople worked for the Charlie Brown campaign in 2006. Like many of us, he came to be painfully aware of the Republican depredations in the Marianas Islands because of the participation of John Doolittle (R-CA), a stooge for Jack Abramoff and Tom DeLay. Although Doolittle and DeLay are both disgraced and probably headed for prison, that's just the beginning of righting the wrongs that have been done in our names in the Marianas. During the run-up to the midterm elections, all became aware of the myriad of human rights violations-- from illegal immigration, simple labor violations, forced abortions and sex slavery. As a result of what they learned, Neil and another Brown campaign worker, Nick Shepard, formed a non-profit organization called “Ripples of Hope,” after a 1966 Robert F. Kennedy speech he gave in South Africa:

"It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope; and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”

Yesterday I asked him if he would help DWT readers understand what he's trying to accomplish in the Marianas. AT the moment he's collaborating with Congressman George Miller in his attempt to pass minimum wage legislation for the islands, something the DeLay clique that still dominates the GOP House caucus vehemently opposes. Neil sent me this report last night and I was working on it just when the police banged down my door and forced me to evacuate Los Feliz:


The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) is a small chain of islands in the Pacific Ocean just north of Guam. With beaches and forests of unparalleled beauty, the CNMI seems like it would be the perfect place to get away from it all. The truth, however, is that a seedy underbelly exists on these tiny islands under US protectorate, and many women and children are living lives of quiet desperation as sex slaves.

Listen to the story of Kayleen Entena as told by Ms Magazine:

“When Kayleen D. Entena was offered a chance to leave the rural Philippines for work as a restaurant waitress in far-off Saipan, in the Marianas Islands, she jumped at it. “I was excited about the opportunity to work abroad,” she told a Senate Energy and Resources Committee hearing here today. At 21, the eldest of five children of a widowed mother, she was told she would earn $400 a month, enough to support her family at home and go back to college herself.

Instead, she and another young woman from the Philippines were forced to work in a brothel. They became two of the countless young women who have come to the mid-Pacific Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory, in search of work and better lives over the past 20 years. If they are lucky, such women work 20 hours a day in sweatshop garment factories, living in shacks or barracks and earning $3.05 per hour, far below the U.S. minimum wage. But the clothes are for top-tier U.S. brands and are often labeled “Made in the USA.” If the women are not lucky, they end up like Kayleen and her friend.

The brothel owner, a woman they called Mamasong, took away their documents and told them they had to work to pay off their tickets or their families at home would suffer. On her first day in Saipan, Kayleen was raped by four men. “We tried to run away twice, but they were always at the front…. Mamasong told us if we tried to leave she would call the police. We were very scared. We begged her to give us the jobs that they promised us in the Philippines.”

The mess that we know as life for the immigrants to the Marianas started in the mid-1990's, when a young lobbyist by the name of Jack Abramoff was hired by the government on the Marianas to represent them in Washington, DC. The government was in desperate need of damage control over reports that the garment industry on the islands was resorting to sweatshop labor being brought in from China, Bangladesh, the Philippines and Thailand. Through his numerous high-level contacts in the U.S. House of Representatives, Abramoff was able to effectively influence numerous Congressmen to kill legislation that would have wrangled in the immigration and labor violations.
Many of the immigrant workers were lured to the Marianas by recruiters sent from the garment industry. They were promised good paying jobs on the “American Islands,” and were sent to the CNMI to find those jobs did not exist. Instead, they were placed into the garment factories. Since the Marianas enjoy American Territorial status, the garment factories were legally permitted to sew “Made in the USA” on the labels being produced by immigrant sweatshop labor. Children as young as thirteen were sold into slavery in karaoke clubs, forced to perform sexual acts on visiting tourists and sailors on leave. The entire time, Congress had mostly turned a blind eye.

By the time that Jack Abramoff was exposed and came under charges of bribery and influence peddling, most of the damage had already been done. Some members of the United States House of Representatives were exposed to have received donations from Abramoff that coordinated with the mysterious legislative black hole known as Mariana reform legislation. Some of those Representatives saw the losing side of Election Day this past November, but the moral victory against corruption has not ended the suffering of victims of human trafficking in the Mariana Islands.

Former United States Ambassador Hadyn Williams sees the Marianas as an open door for potential national security risks, yet another reason why we need to enact real reform on the CNMI. In a 2007 Senate hearing, Ambassador Williams said: "My message is a simple one. It is time for the Congress to take a critical across-the-board look at the current situation in the CNMI in the best interests of the citizens of the CNMI and the broader interests of the U.S. This Committee is aware that the CNMI today is in dire straits and has turned to Washington for help. In your CNMI oversight hearings, I believe, Mr. Chairman, that it is in everyone's interest to focus in particular on the CNMI's immigration policies and the control of its borders."

This story, which has yet to see its happy ending, has been making its way to the American people's attention over the last decade. ABC News' 20/20 and Ms Magazine have shined a spotlight on this horrible situation, along with gripping reports in the Sacramento Bee, The Hill, and other print media. The Catholic Church's Karidat (the Catholic Social Services group in Saipan) has been warily assisting the victims of this trafficking in Saipan, but they need our help.

We are only now beginning to see the tip of an iceberg of corruption and misery.

Ripples of Hope is building a network to financially support Karidat in its efforts to rescue the sex slaves and give them a safe harbor.

Soon, help will be on its way to bring justice to the Mariana Islands.

by Neil Pople


A LITTLE UPDATE FROM HOWIE: WILL DOOLITTLE RESIGN WHEN HE'S INDICTED?

Blogswarm over at Calitics thinks it's just a matter of time, and not much time, before Doolittle is indicted. He's already turned down a plea bargain arrangement which would probably have kept him and Julie from serving serious time, deals accepted by fellow Republicrooks Cunningham and Ney. But do we really want him to resign? His continued membership in Congress during an indictment procedure and trial will remind people in CA-04-- and indeed Americans everywhere-- that there is no Republican Party without endemic, systemic corruption. The GOP is a criminal organization. Voting for Republicans is tantamount to coddling criminals-- criminals who will plunder your property and destroy your soul. Last year 104,746 people voted for Doolittle. They need to understand what they did. The best way to help them understand that is for them to watch their congressman's trial on Court TV.

By the way, have you donated to Charlie Brown's campaign? Whether Doolittle resigns or not, Charlie will have a tough race in CA-04. Even $5 and $10 donations make a big difference.