Migration Under the  Treaty

 Citizens of the Pacific island nations of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), Republic of Palau (ROP), and the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) have been legally migrating to the United States since the U.S. Congress and President Reagan signed the treaty with these island nations called the Compact of Free Association with the United States. Commonly known as the Compact, the treaty allows citizens of those sovereign nations to freely enter the United States to live, attend schools, and work. In exchange, the United States retains the right to provide security throughout the territorial waters. Since the Treaty was mutually signed 1987, thousands of citizens have migrated to the United States through the Hawaiian islands and Guam in search of education and jobs for themselves and their children.

The Discrimination

Without the usual comprehensive investigation from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to provide adequate data, U.S. Senator Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) has started a blitz of public statements and allegations against these small group of legal immigrants. He has insisted without a GAO report that this legal migration of people from these freely associated states is costing the State of Hawaii in millions of dollars as the immigrants are entitled to the same social services as U.S. citizens. He has failed to also give proper gudos to the majority of these legal migrants who are working and contributing to the U.S economy. He and his colleagues in the U.S. Senate have tried different tactics to force the U.S. federal government to compensate the State of Hawaii for this federal initiative.  In September, 2011 Senator Inouye as Chair of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee has ordered President Obama and the Department of Interior which oversees the terms of the Treaty to begin a process of restricting immigrants from these FAS. By taking such a public stand against this small minority of Pacific islanders, Senator Inouye has given the political stamp to racial discrimination against this newest group of LEGAL immigrants to the State of Hawaii.

The Forgotten Links

The U.S Senate is on the brink of exercising the same short-term memory that has plagued U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. They are forgetting that the U.S. government invaded those Pacific islands during WWII to fight the Japanese. Then the U.S military tested the atomic bomb on Bikini Atoll (yes, that historic atomic testing) in the Marshall Islands making most of the atolls uninhabitable due to radioactive contamination. Senator Inouye and his colleagues have also forgotten that the U.S. government once considered those islands strategically important for national security during the Cold War. More tragically, they are forgetting that young citizens of those same islands have died alongside their American comrades in the wars in Irag and Afghanistan and will continue to do so in future wars. Less important, but nonetheless ironic, Senator Inouye from that great State of Hawaii seems to have forgotten the Aloha Spirit of hospitality which his state has trademarked as its marketing ploy to attract sunbathers to the same beaches that capitalists have stolen from the native Hawaiians.

Our Petition

Take Action

We ask all our gracious American friends to speak out on our behalf by signing our petition on Change.org. Use the letter there to send an email about this issue to your representatives in Washington. While we are living in the U.S legally by invitation of your government, we are unable to speak up for ourselves since we have no representation in Congress. We have no voice but yours to speak up against this injustice.

Thank you very much.

Vid