Posted on: Monday, March 17, 2003

EDITORIAL
Washington has a bill due for our neighbors

In a time when billions of dollars are being spent in the fight against "terrorism," it is nearly absurd that the federal government continues to ignore bills due from the last great "war" — the Cold War.

One of those bills is the cost of providing education, healthcare and welfare benefits to our Pacific neighbors from the former islands of the Trust Territory.

Under a compact of free association with the former Trust Territory islands, residents of those islands are granted absolute rights to travel to and live in the United States.

The compact with the islands was driven in part by Cold War logic. The United States had an interest in maintaining influence and a presence in the islands, both from a sense of trust responsibility and also to keep other powers and influences out of this vast sweep of the central Pacific.

One unintended consequence of these agreements was the steady migration of islanders to other U.S. locations in search of education and better opportunities.

Hawai'i, being the closest neighbor to the east, has received more than its share of these immigrants.

State officials have long complained that some of these immigrants impose a financial strain on both public and private resources.

The Bush administration recently made a small down payment on the tens of millions of dollars spent by the state in caring for these immigrants. It offered $15 million a year over the next two years to be shared by Hawai'i, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and American Samoa.

That's a welcome first step, but hardly enough.

It seems fair to argue that Washington has both a legal and moral obligation to do a better job of helping Hawai'i care for these people. It was in this country's strategic interest to make the deal that welcomes them here. It was our atomic testing that led, decades later, to many of the worst health problems suffered by residents of the Marshalls.

So now the time has come to pay the bill. The $15 million is but a small first step.