GOP senators urge DHS to end CNMI visa waivers for Chinese, HK travelers over security risks

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Sen. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), and Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) urged the administration of President Donald J. Trump to revoke visa waiver programs allowing People’s Republic of China nationals and Hong Kong passport holders visa-free entry to the CNMI, warning the policies pose “a clear and significant short- and long-term national security risk.”

In a Jan. 15, 2026 letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, the senators argued that an Obama-era parole policy and Biden-era expansions have enabled what they described as widespread abuse of U.S. immigration laws, writing that “a lingering Obama- and Biden-era policy allows nationals from China—a country that has declared itself our enemy—to obtain fast-track American citizenship.”

“Since these programs were implemented, birth tourism in Saipan has exploded. Births by visiting Chinese mothers jumped from fewer than 10 annually in 2009 to nearly 600 by 2018, leading to more foreign births in Saipan than U.S. births. According to a VOA News investigation, more than 3,300 babies have been born in Saipan to Chinese mothers since 2009, with 55 births occurring last year alone,” Scott, Banks, and Mullin wrote.

They cited birth tourism as a key concern, stating that the visa waiver programs have created a veritable cottage industry of Chinese nationals giving birth in the CNMI and gaining access to U.S. citizenship.

The letter warned that once children born through birth tourism reach adulthood, “they can petition for green cards for their parents, potentially leading to chain migration,” adding that “their children—the grandchildren of the Communist Chinese birth tourists—can themselves become U.S. citizens regardless of where they are born.”

“In the next 10 to 20 years, the first beneficiaries of this Obama-era policy could easily apply for high positions within the U.S. federal government and likely receive priority consideration due to fluency in Mandarin. This is an ongoing security vulnerability that Xi Jinping and his successors in the CCP will be more than happy to exploit,” they wrote.

The senators also rejected arguments that the Biden-created Economic Vitality & Security Travel Authorization Program is essential to the CNMI economy, writing that “too often, this visa program has created a drain on CNMI economic resources, not an economic gain, all while putting our national security at risk.”

They added that the late CNMI governor Arnold I. Palacios himself said birth tourism had overwhelmed the Commonwealth Health Center due to a lack of documentation on pregnancy risks.

The letter further linked visa-free travel to human smuggling, pointing to cases in which Chinese nationals used Saipan as a staging point to illegally enter Guam, including incidents near “sensitive military installations, including Andersen Air Force Base.”

Scott, Banks, and Mullin wrote that in February 2025, PRC national Kangle Jiang was sentenced to prison for working with a Saipan-based accomplice to transport eight Chinese nationals by boat to Guam, where the individuals were later apprehended in or near sensitive U.S. military installations, including Andersen Air Force Base.

In a separate case, the U.S. District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands in November 2025 sentenced four men for conspiring to smuggle 21 Chinese nationals by sea from Saipan to Guam, an operation authorities said posed national security concerns and provided no legitimate economic benefit to U.S. citizens or residents of the Marianas.

The senators also said increasingly relevant to U.S. policymakers is the CNMI casino industry’s longstanding affiliation with systematic human smuggling concerns, egregious wage and overtime violations, including paying subcontractors below minimum wage, money laundering and wire fraud, and sexual harassment and discrimination.

“The Chapter 11 filing of the Hong Kong-based Imperial Pacific International was a welcome development; for years the company —deeply influenced by CCP-aligned interests—leveraged its enormous revenues to sway local politics and the islands’ Casino Commission. Unfortunately, its casino assets have since been transferred to an LLC with troubling and well-documented connections to the former owners,” they wrote.

The senators formally requested a response by Jan. 28, 2026, asking DHS to revoke EVS-TAP and require standard tourist visas for Chinese nationals visiting the CNMI, calling it “a unilateral decision that can be made by the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.”

They also urged ending Hong Kong’s participation in the program, writing that since Beijing’s 2020 crackdown, Hong Kong remains under Xi Jinping and the CCP’s control and should be treated as such.

“The people of the CNMI deserve a better future than the empty promises offered by Communist China, and we should be prepared to work as equal partners to secure that future,” Scott, Banks, and Mullin wrote.