Saipan: Island of broken dreams, Migrant workers in Marianas face deportation

It shimmers shyly in the Western Pacific like an unpolished diamond in a nest of sparkling opals. Its size belying its strategic geographical importance.

Saipan is the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands which are strewn like gems from a broken bracelet across the Pacific corridor that links east and west – between Asia and the United States.

It has played vital roles throughout history for European colonisers in the middle ages to imperialist armies in World War 1 and World War 2.

Now, Saipan prides itself in sitting at the intersection of the modern world’s three largest economies – China, Japan, and the outer fringes of the United States.

Which is what it is most proud of. The Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) are a US commonwealth, like Puerto Rico.

Its currency is the US dollar, its people are US citizens, and food servings in its restaurants are as large as they are on “the mainland”, and the license plates on its cars loudly declare: “CNMI - USA”.

But despite choosing to be a US territory in the 70s, CNMI retained control over many of its laws – including immigration and employment. Read More