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The NPR story continued:
YDSTIE: Garment manufacturers were attracted to the Marianas, which had become a U.S. commonwealth in 1976, because clothes made there could be labeled made in the U.S.A. and didn't face import quotas or duties. But despite flying the U.S. flag, the islands were exempt from many U.S. labor and immigration standards. As the abuses that Wendy Doromol helped uncover came to light, garment manufacturers there were sanctioned by the U.S. Labor Department. Then in the mid-1990s when it looked like Congress might force the Marianas to adopt U.S. Labor and Immigration laws, the island's government took action. It hired lobbyist Jack Abramoff to protect its special status. Abramoff was paid millions for his work. Here he is in a 1999 NPR story arguing that there were no abuses.
Mr. JACK ABRAMOFF (Lobbyist): In the Northern Marianas they're scrupulously careful to make sure that no one, if possible, is mistreated in any way, just because of the incredible microscope these people are under.
YDSTIE: But in 1998 Interior Department investigation, which Wendy Doromal had worked on, had documented continued abuses of guest workers on the islands. Abramoff dismissed the allegations.
Mr. ABRAMOFF: Most of the workers on the island would be violently upset if they understood what these self-proclaimed helpers of the workers are up to, which is in essence destroying their jobs and destroying their families' opportunities.
YDSTIE: Abramoff didn't only depend on his own persuasive ability though, he flew more than a hundred congressional aides and members of Congress to the island on fact-finding trips that usually involved a look at a showcase factory and then beach time, snorkeling and golf. Tom DeLay went on one of those trips. Here he is at a New Year's Eve dinner on the Marianas in 1997, congratulating the island's officials and business leaders.
Representative TOM DELAY (Republican, Texas): You are a shining light for what is happening in the Republican Party and you represent everything that is good about what we're trying to do in America, in leading the world in the free market system.
YDSTIE: That tape was from an ABC 20/20 investigative story that aired in 1998. And Global Survival Network, a human rights group, used a hidden microphone to capture the head of the island's biggest garment firm, a man named Willie Tan, boasting that DeLay had assured him his business would be protected.
Mr. WILLIE TAN (Textile Executive): I'm a very good friend of Tom DeLay.
YDSTIE: Tan starts by saying he's a very good friend of Tom DeLay's and that DeLay told him that as a member of the House Republican leadership, he controlled the schedule and would make sure reform legislation didn't get a hearing.
Mr. TAN: So Tom told me, forget it, Willie, no chance.
YDSTIE: In fact, through his House leadership position, DeLay made sure the House never considered any legislation dealing with abuses in the Marianas, even though one bill had 228 co-sponsors. By contrast, the Senate unanimously passed legislation aimed at curbing some of the abuses. Wendy Doromol testified at the Senate hearings. She says Tom DeLay had to be aware of the problems.
Ms. DOROMOL: He must've known what was going on, on the ground at that time. And if he didn't, I have to think, why would someone not know, why would they not know? Only because they wanted to ignore it.
YDSTIE: Federal investigators are looking for a money trail. They've subpoenaed the records of a non-profit group with ties to DeLay that got over $500,000 from Willie Tan's firm. The non-profit was run by DeLay's former chief of staff and spiritual advisor, Ed Buckham. Buckham also employed DeLay's wife, Christine. Now that DeLay has resigned, Democrats have reduced legislation to address the labor and immigration abuses in the Marianas. In the past few years, the garment industry on the island has shrunk as U.S. import quotas have been lifted and the made in the U.S.A. label has become less valuable. But now there are reports of labor abuses involving two other booming industries on the islands, gambling and entertainment, including the sex trade. Attorneys for Abramoff and DeLay declined to comment for this story.
Delay's exit from Congress coincided with the introduction of the Human Dignity Act, a bill introduced by Rep. George Miller (D-CA), former Rep. Hilda Solis (D-CA) and Rep. John Spratt (D-SC). I stood on the steps of the Cannon Office Building on behalf of the thousands of disenfranchised and exploited foreign contract workers in the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) to witness the introduction of that legislation on June 17, 2006. On the podium where the legislators spoke was a sign that read, "Delay- Abramoff Out, Human Dignity Act In.
Some of the most abused of all victims I met were the minors and young women trafficked from the Philippines and other Asian countries and forced to be strippers and prostitutes. Most were recruited as waitresses for clubs and bars, but once in the CNMI they were forced to perform lewd sex acts and dances on stage and were sold as prostitutes. After the customers left, they were locked in dismal barracks. One woman told me that she slept on the dance floor. These were unwilling dancers, some who were never paid, and some who danced in their tears.
