As some of the wealthiest CNMI businessmen push for increased Chinese influence in the Commonwealth, the federal government continues its crackdown on yet another alleged attempt by residents to smuggle Chinese undocumented immigrants from Saipan to Guam.
“Beginning in or about June 2023, Yan Juan Hu Taitano … and Lee Jesse Omar Reyes … orchestrated a plan to transport a group of nine Chinese nationals, all of whom are unindicted co-conspirators, from the District of the Northern Mariana Islands with the intent to unlawfully enter and reside in the territory of Guam, knowing and in reckless disregard of the fact that the Chinese nationals had no right or authority to enter Guam,” a January 23, 2024 refiling of an indictment states.
According to the indictment, Taitano and Reyes hired Ramon Jose Quitano Sablan and Maverick Ryan Iguel Marlik “to drive a small motorboat from Smiling Cove Marina, Saipan, CNMI to the Territory of Guam, on or about July 9, 2023, for the purpose of transporting and moving the Chinese nationals in furtherance of a violation of law.”
All four were indicted for Conspiracy to Transport Illegal Aliens. They also face a forfeiture allegation.
According to the indictment, the undocumented immigrants agreed to pay Taitano and Reyes up to $5,000 per person transported from Saipan to Guam. The unnamed undocumented immigrants met Taitano and Reyes at least twice to make downpayments on the trip. Taitano and Reyes used that money to purchase the motorboat that was used on July 9, 2023 to make the trip, according to the indictment.
It was Reyes who agreed to pay Sablan to drive the boat and Marlik to assist him, “including to refuel the boat en route,” according to the indictment.
“The boat departed Smiling Cove Marina at approximately 9:00 PM with … Sablan and … Marlik as well as the nine Chinese national passengers on board,” the indictment states. “The boat proceeded south, toward the Territory of Guam. The boat ran out of fuel and began to drift just before it reached the island of Rota, thus necessitating a rescue operation by the United States Coast Guard.”
A series of voyages have been discovered over the past couple of years, some of which succeeded with landings along Guam’s northern shores, and one of which had to be rescued for a capsizing in the Rota Channel.
Federal contract worker importation and tourist rules for the CNMI are different than for Guam, which has brought about a large community of people from the People’s Republic of China in Saipan. Some of them have overstayed their allowable time in the CNMI.
“I know from my experience that noncitizens have paid between $3,000 to $5,000 USD cash to be smuggled from the NMI to Guam,” a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations familiar with criminal human smuggling organizations in the CNMI and Guam stated in a September 2023 federal complaint.
‘[They] seek to enter Guam for higher wages compared to the NMI,” the agent stated.
She also said noncitizens often enter the CNMI, intending to overstay, and that they save up bulk cash currency in order to pay for their smuggle into Guam.
Kandit sources in the CNMI and on Guam have said some Guam construction companies have been scouting in Saipan, telling Chinese workers they will be paid between $200 to $500 a day for labor work.
Such arrangements would make these Chinese undocumented workers susceptible to major labor abuses, including a reneging on the ‘$200-a-day’ promise, as the employer knows the worker will not risk deportation by reporting conditions to authorities.
This is not something new for construction companies on Guam. Several similar undocumented worker operations were busted in the 1990s and at the turn of the century. And construction labor work may not be where the workers end up. Massage parlor patrons on Guam also pay far more money for ‘massages,’ than in the CNMI, increasing the likelihood the female undocumented workers would wind up prostituting themselves under illegal and inhumane conditions in Guam.
It would not be the first time the so-called massage parlors on Guam would exploit foreign women, turning the human trafficking into a sex trafficking conspiracy.
Sources familiar with the situation of many undocumented Chinese immigrants in Saipan also have said the cash these immigrants pay to be smuggled into Guam often is all the money these people have. For the female immigrants, one source told Kandit, oftentimes they earn that money through prostitution in Saipan.
Despite these ongoing issues, and separate concerns raised by the U.S. military and the federal government about the increasing risk of spying that tourism from the People’s Republic of China will bring, some of the wealthiest businessmen continue to push for Chinese investment into the CNMI.
Just two weeks ago, the heads of the Saipan Chamber of Commerce and the Hotel Association of the Northern Mariana Islands, wrote to the Senate president asking for her support effectively against the governor’s position against any expansion of investment from communist China.
The letter is tone deaf to a letter signed by several members of Congress in December to the Secretary of Homeland Security calling for an end to a special exemption the CNMI has enjoyed that allowed for easier Chinese tourism into Saipan. Among the reasons for the bipartisan push was the increase in smuggling of undocumented immigrants from China from Saipan into Guam.
1 Comments
Russ Mason
01/31/2024 at 12:02 PM
Why on earth would US businessmen push for Chinese INFLUENCE? It’s their Yuan we need here.
As to the human smuggling racket, you pays your money and you takes your chances. Not worth the risk.