Federal Immigration Laws and U.S. Empire: Tracing Immigration Lawmaking in the Mariana Islands

This article draws on the case of the Mariana Islands, the site of two U.S. territories - Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) - to examine the development and implementation of federal immigration laws in U.S. territories. While such laws have been enforced in Guam since the early 1950s, this has only been the case in the CNMI since 2008. I show how federal legislation has evolved over time to regulate migration from Asia and neighboring Pacific Island nations, leading to the development of a range of precarious, liminal immigration statuses to meet military, tourism, and manufacturing needs.