Guam Delegate James Moylan fully supports the Congressional letter signed by over 30 U.S. lawmakers calling for Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to end the NMI’s discretionary parole policy allowing Chinese nationals to visit without a visa for business or pleasure for up to 14 days.

Moyland said,

“Because we also see problems with what's going on now with these folks that don't have a visa from China. We are seeing illegal employment on Guam that the Guam Department of Labor has addressed and caught. They came in from Saipan. That's how they got their jobs here, too. We've also seen boats coming late at night and they're crashing onto our shores and eluding our public safety there, as reported by the Guam Police Department. We've seen illegal access into Andersen Air Force Base that has been reported to by these folks as well. That's dangerous. And we are also seeing drug smuggling going on, too, in the region as well. So this is all attributed, I believe, to the current, which is the current problem, that we do not have a visa, that is important for these Chinese nationals if  they're going to come to CNMI.”

Moylan emphasizes the national security concern stemming from those incidents, revealing that Guam’s military operations could be at risk.

“My voice was heard loudly in committee of the situation that we have of these small boats landing illegally in the dead of night on our shores…We have difficulty capturing them. And the other stories we're hearing from Andersen Air Force Base, where in they're cutting the fence and they're getting our bases, that's extremely dangerous. These are aggressors…they are doing espionage actions here. It's a worry for the defense of our nation. It's a worry for the defense of our islands,” He said.

We asked Andersen Air Force Base officials about the alleged incident. 1st Lt. Ariana Wilkinson, Chief of Media Operations with the 36th Wing Public Affairs, told KUAM in an email, “The report was off the installation, under GPD jurisdiction. At no point have Chinese Nationals entered the installation. Our Security Forces Defenders found no evidence of any additional landing parties/personnel but remained actively patrolling until late in the evening and the indication was negative.”

They informed us to reach out to the Guam Police Department for more details.

GPD PIO Berlyn Savella told us that the “Special Operations Division has no knowledge of [KUAM’s] inquiry.”

KUAM asked Moylan for more details. “The different points of entry or where they land on the island, I'm not exactly sure of all the points where they land the small boats. However, they eventually make their way up to Andersen Air Force Base. There were some that were capture, found coming in illegally onto the base. So that's that's terrible, right. We need our we need to keep our service members safe. We need to keep our island safe,” Moylan said.

Ultimately, Moylan says he supports the call for equal treatment across states and territories.

He added, “And there's things that we can do, right? The Chinese nationals, they should should get the visas. There's something called the B-1 which is for business or the B-2, which is for visitors or you can do a combination, but every place else in the nation, they have to have this.  Only for the territory in the CNMI that they don't don't.”

However, he is open to alternative solutions as local industry leaders struggle to maintain the economy without another major tourism market.

“It is not an ultimatum and it is good that we look at other options as well. The final decision will eventually be made, bu we also understand the CNMI is reliant upon the tourism and the livelihoods there but there has to be a balance. We just can not give up national security by having no visa at all.  So we need to do something. The B1/B2 that is an option. If there are also other things on the table that is also an option. We need to be stricter. We need to vet these people. We need to protect the people of the Mariana Islands and protect our military bases as well,” Moylan said.

Meanwhile, in a separate letter this month, former Federated States of Micronesia President David Panuelo applauded U.S. lawmakers calling for an end to the visa policy for the CNMI. 

He also warned Congress that if they fail to fund the Compact of Free Association, a potential war between the U.S. and China is increasingly a matter of ‘When’, not ‘If’.”

Panuelo said, “America is already on the precipice of losing the North Pacific to Chinese influence and propaganda.”