CNMI judge rejects Pinoy plea to drop human smuggling charge
SUSUPE, Saipan – A Superior Court judge in the US Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) denied the motion of a Filipino contract worker to dismiss the charge of smuggling of 11 foreigners from Saipan to Guam in June 2007.
Edwin F. Blanilla, a contract worker from the Philippines, was charged for attempting to bring 11 Chinese from the CNMI into Guam, also a US territory, on a boat on June 27, 2007.
The CNMI is less than an hour away from Guam by plane.
Blanilla was the pilot of the boat that was supposed to drop the 11 individuals off to Guam. In exchange for dropping the foreigners off, Blanilla would receive the boat as payment.
According to court documents, Blanilla planned to sell the boat then return to the Philippines.
But Blanilla and the 11 foreigners were rescued by the US Coast Guard when their vessel got stranded in the waters approximately 20 miles north of Guam on June 27, 2007.
The 12 individuals, including Blanilla, were questioned and charged after authorities learned they didn’t have lawful documents to travel to Guam.
A deportation case was filed against nine of the 11 foreigners but the government later dismissed the case. Some of them voluntarily left the CNMI while others secured a temporary permit to work on Saipan, the capital of the CNMI.
Blanilla and two other individuals from China who were also supposed to be dropped off to Guam were “charged for smuggling persons and for inducing and encouraging aliens to depart the CNMI with the purpose of entering the United States with the knowledge that such entry is in violation of the law."
Blanilla submitted a motion to dismiss the case against him and the matter was heard on Feb. 13, 2008.
He argued that everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and so there can be no such thing as unlawful departure from the CNMI. He said any restriction on this right to leave the CNMI violated his right to travel.
CNMI Superior Court Associate Judge Ramona V. Manglona, in denying Blanilla’s motion, agreed with the government’s argument that all the defendants were permitted to travel from the CNMI to any location that would accept them within the bounds of laws applicable to everyone.
But, she added, “the statute in question is restrictive only in that it regulates the manner in which the right to travel may be exercised by requiring that it can be accomplished lawfully. It is a time, place and manner restriction and is not an outright ban on travel."
Blanilla also argued that “the statute is invalid and unenforceable on the basis that it is preempted by the supremacy clause of the United States Constitution; it requires the court to adjudicate matters of federal law that are beyond the court’s jurisdiction and the statute is unconstitutionally vague and fails to provide defendant fair notice of what acts constitute a violation of the law."
Judge Manglona said none of these challenges convince the court that the statute is invalid on its face or as applied to the defendant.
She said the defendant’s “reliance upon authorities interpreting the doctrine of implied preemption of state laws under the commerce clause is inappropriate given the role of Congress in granting the CNMI jurisdiction over local immigration and its responsibility for creating both regimes."
“The purpose of the CNMI statute is to prevent the commonwealth from becoming a stepping stone for unlawful immigration into Guam and other US jurisdictions and an attractive base for persons who profit from human traffic, thereby protecting the lawful residents of the commonwealth from the deleterious effects of these undesirable activities," the judge added.
The CNMI, although a US territory, does not require foreign workers to obtain a US visa before entry for work or travel purposes. Other US territories like Guam require a US visa. - Haidee V. Eugenio, GMANews.TV
Edwin F. Blanilla, a contract worker from the Philippines, was charged for attempting to bring 11 Chinese from the CNMI into Guam, also a US territory, on a boat on June 27, 2007.
The CNMI is less than an hour away from Guam by plane.
Blanilla was the pilot of the boat that was supposed to drop the 11 individuals off to Guam. In exchange for dropping the foreigners off, Blanilla would receive the boat as payment.
According to court documents, Blanilla planned to sell the boat then return to the Philippines.
But Blanilla and the 11 foreigners were rescued by the US Coast Guard when their vessel got stranded in the waters approximately 20 miles north of Guam on June 27, 2007.
The 12 individuals, including Blanilla, were questioned and charged after authorities learned they didn’t have lawful documents to travel to Guam.
A deportation case was filed against nine of the 11 foreigners but the government later dismissed the case. Some of them voluntarily left the CNMI while others secured a temporary permit to work on Saipan, the capital of the CNMI.
Blanilla and two other individuals from China who were also supposed to be dropped off to Guam were “charged for smuggling persons and for inducing and encouraging aliens to depart the CNMI with the purpose of entering the United States with the knowledge that such entry is in violation of the law."
Blanilla submitted a motion to dismiss the case against him and the matter was heard on Feb. 13, 2008.
He argued that everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and so there can be no such thing as unlawful departure from the CNMI. He said any restriction on this right to leave the CNMI violated his right to travel.
CNMI Superior Court Associate Judge Ramona V. Manglona, in denying Blanilla’s motion, agreed with the government’s argument that all the defendants were permitted to travel from the CNMI to any location that would accept them within the bounds of laws applicable to everyone.
But, she added, “the statute in question is restrictive only in that it regulates the manner in which the right to travel may be exercised by requiring that it can be accomplished lawfully. It is a time, place and manner restriction and is not an outright ban on travel."
Blanilla also argued that “the statute is invalid and unenforceable on the basis that it is preempted by the supremacy clause of the United States Constitution; it requires the court to adjudicate matters of federal law that are beyond the court’s jurisdiction and the statute is unconstitutionally vague and fails to provide defendant fair notice of what acts constitute a violation of the law."
Judge Manglona said none of these challenges convince the court that the statute is invalid on its face or as applied to the defendant.
She said the defendant’s “reliance upon authorities interpreting the doctrine of implied preemption of state laws under the commerce clause is inappropriate given the role of Congress in granting the CNMI jurisdiction over local immigration and its responsibility for creating both regimes."
“The purpose of the CNMI statute is to prevent the commonwealth from becoming a stepping stone for unlawful immigration into Guam and other US jurisdictions and an attractive base for persons who profit from human traffic, thereby protecting the lawful residents of the commonwealth from the deleterious effects of these undesirable activities," the judge added.
The CNMI, although a US territory, does not require foreign workers to obtain a US visa before entry for work or travel purposes. Other US territories like Guam require a US visa. - Haidee V. Eugenio, GMANews.TV
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