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While Gov has praise for Immigration office, others aren’t so sure

While several lawmakers and many in the community have accused the government of lack of enforcement of local immigration laws, Gov. Lolo Matalasi Moliga believes otherwise — painting a positive picture of the Immigration Office tasked with protecting American Samoa’s borders.

 

In his official State of the Territory Address, which is now the official executive report to the Fono, the governor claims the Immigration Office continues to improve the services provided to the people of American Samoa.

 

And this is achieved “through the implementation of the tasks to mitigate our collective concerns over the integrity of our established immigration system,” he further claims.

 

According to the governor, immigration policies have been redefined within the legal limitations of the Chief Immigration Officer, streamlining all processes and prohibiting any illegal practices that have hampered the ability to efficiently service our population in the past. “

 

“...with our attempts to clear the backlog of applications to reside legally in American Samoa, concurrent effort was waged to reconcile the Bond Account given uncovered discrepancies,” Lolo revealed and noted that the ASG Treasurer has been directed to setup a separate Bond Account into which all bond payments are to be deposited.

 

He also revealed that the Treasurer has been asked to explore interest bearing investment options into which the bond deposits are to be invested to generate additional income.

 

Regarding the entry permit process, Lolo said this continues to be improved upon and streamlined resulting in time savings for immigration actions requested by the residents of American Samoa.

 

Moreover, the “same day” turn-around for Immigration ID renewal to avoid unnecessary hardship on legal immigrants has been fully implemented.

 

He also says the Immigration Office has maintained its commitment to increasing revenues generated from immigration related services. The average increase of $20,000 monthly revenue collections achieved in 2013 was being maintained in 2014, he says.

 

Lolo also addressed the issue of under-counted population during the 2010 U.S. Census. He explained that the Attorney General and Commerce Department director have been directed to raise with the Census Bureau, the potential understating of the Territory’s population based on the number of undocumented immigrants registered under the local Immigration Amnesty Program.

 

Since federal fund allocation decisions are based on population it is imperative that this issue be promptly raised with the federal government, he said.

 

The Immigration Amnesty Program law allowed the legal registration of nearly 3,000 immigrants, but the government has made clear since last year that not all qualified — for example those with felony criminal records are excluded.