Congresswoman also confirms meeting with Senate letter author, calls EVS-TAP a Trump administration program and says CNMI will not regain immigration control in her lifetime
SAIPAN — Congresswoman Kimberlyn King-Hinds said Wednesday she is considering introducing legislation that would end automatic birthright citizenship for children born in the CNMI to parents who entered on tourist visas, framing the move as a direct response to congressional critics who have used birth tourism concerns to justify eliminating the Commonwealth’s visa waiver tools.
“I’m getting to that point,” King-Hinds said during an appearance on Good Morning Marianas. “If you come into the CNMI on a tourist visa and you give birth here, you don’t get automatic grant of citizenship. I’m getting to that point. And it seems like a no-brainer.”
King-Hinds acknowledged the proposal would face constitutional scrutiny but argued the CNMI’s status as an unincorporated territory under the insular cases gives it legal room to act in ways that would not be available to states. “The Constitution doesn’t follow the flag” in unincorporated territories, she said, pointing to land alienation restrictions as an existing precedent for rights that would otherwise conflict with the 14th Amendment.
She said she does not believe such a measure could pass nationally but sees a possible path specific to the CNMI. “I don’t think they can do it nationwide. I think that there might be room to do it here,” she said.
The congresswoman said her motivation is not opposition to Chinese visitors but frustration that birth tourism concerns are being used in Washington to justify removing economic tools the CNMI depends on. “Instead of talking about the problem, let’s find ways to stop it,” she said.
King-Hinds also pushed back forcefully against the characterization of the Enhanced Vetting System for Temporary Admission Program as a product of the Biden or Obama administrations. She said EVS-TAP originated under the first Trump administration, when then-Governor Ralph Torres negotiated with the White House over concerns about the China visa waiver program.
“It’s a misnomer to say that this is a Biden or an Obama program,” she said. “This is a Trump one program. He recognized — the president is a businessman — he knows that for every business to survive you need customers. And so this program was created under his administration.”
On Annex VI of the U.S.-China Air Transport Agreement, King-Hinds said reinstating the CNMI and Guam’s exemption from flight frequency limitations remains the most critical near-term economic tool. She said a Department of Transportation order issued in June 2022 lumped the islands into the same frequency caps as the broader U.S. market, effectively preventing airlines from adding flights from Asia. With the cap currently set at 51 flights, she said carriers will always choose larger mainland markets over the Marianas.
“If there’s a choice between going to the United States and coming to the Marianas, where do you think these big airlines are going to go?” she said.
King-Hinds confirmed that her team recently met with Senator Jim Banks, one of the authors of a Senate letter calling for the elimination of EVS-TAP. She said Banks and his staff appeared receptive to information the CNMI delegation presented. “I think they were surprised about the information that we presented and shared with them,” she said. “The data — what is actually going on.”
She also said several senators who were not signatories to that letter have personally reached out to request meetings and learn more about the CNMI’s situation.
On the broader question of CNMI immigration control, King-Hinds was direct. Asked whether the Commonwealth could ever regain authority over its own immigration, she said she did not believe it would happen in her lifetime, citing geopolitical realities and the federal government’s interest in vetting who enters U.S. jurisdiction through the Marianas.
King-Hinds is scheduled to return to Washington after two days on island, where she said a full slate of meetings is already lined up.
Watch the full interview on the NMI News Service Facbook page or YouTube Channel.
