It’s a tough call, but for my money, the most offensive of the charges swirling around House Majority Leader Tom DeLay is his efforts on behalf of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI).
In the late 1990s, DeLay visited Saipan, the main island of the CNMI, on Jack Abramoff’s dime. Though it was a clear violation of House ethics rules, it’s probably the least troubling aspect of this story.
Saipan’s labor policies are abhorrent, with sweatshops, child labor, forced teenage prostitution, and forced abortions. The island, however, has been a lucrative commercial center for clothing manufacturers that create “Made in the USA” products there because CNMI is considered a U.S. territory.
Saipan hired Abramoff, who in turn brought DeLay to see the island’s businesses. DeLay somehow managed to overlook the repugnant labor problems and was impressed with the island’s system.
To DeLay, Saipan was an inspiration, not an embarrassment. Indeed, the United States, DeLay told the Houston Chronicle in 1998, ought to create a mainland guest-worker program just like the one Saipan offered Chinese citizens, where “particular companies can bring Mexican workers in” and pay them “whatever the market will bear.” The Saipan solution, he added, was “a shining example of a free-market success.”
DeLay promoted the island’s labor policies, punished the Department of the Interior for highlighting Saipan’s problems, and did exactly what Jack Abramoff asked him to do — protect the Mariana Islands’ exemption from U.S. labor laws.
Asked about the horrible working conditions, DeLay said, “The workers there were very well treated.” When confronted with charges that workers on Saipan labored in sweatshops while others were forced into sex slavery, DeLay dismissed them “incredible lies.”
According to a devastating new report, however, DeLay is either lying or blind.
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay says he found no victims of sweatshops, sex slavery or forced abortions on the Pacific island of Saipan in the mid-1990s. But Carmencita Abad says that’s because DeLay did not want to see them.
“My answer is, Mr. DeLay, I am that person,” Abad said in a telephone interview. “I am an example of an individual who can prove that the accounts of sweatshop labor and forced prostitution are not just allegations but true accounts of working conditions in the Marianas Islands when Mr. DeLay traveled there and turned a blind eye to our misery.”
DeLay’s denials are also contradicted by two federal agencies and by congressmen from both parties that the charges were true.
This is a triple whammy for the beleaguered and corrupt Majority Leader. One, DeLay’s trip was financed by Abramoff; two, DeLay saw egregious human rights violations and couldn’t care less; and three, DeLay lied about it.