Abramoff in Jail, Saipan Loses Its Fight (to remain exempt from US immigration/labor laws)

One of disgraced former Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff's biggest clients -- the tiny Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific just north of Guam -- has lost its 20-year fight to remain exempt from U.S. immigration and labor laws.

The islands played a small, if somewhat noticeable, role in a Post investigation into the lobbying activities of Abramoff, who pleaded guilty to fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy to bribe public officials in 2006 and was sentenced to nearly six years in prison.

Today, President Bush signed into law the "Consolidated Natural Resources Act of 2008," which forces the Northern Mariana Islands to fall under U.S. immigration and labor laws, among other things.The law also gives the protectorate, which includes Saipan, a nonvoting delegate to the House.

Officials in the islands had long sought to retain exemptions from U.S. laws in order to import cheap Chinese laborers that could make garments labeled "Made in the U.S.A."

Human rights groups and labor unions complained that the commonwealth's lax rules -- which were negotiated as part of a 1986 covenant with the federal government -- resulted in exploitative working conditions.

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Abramoff, who has helped prosecutors in a string of investigations into wrongdoing by lawmakers and aides, is in federal prison in Maryland serving time for the Florida fraud conviction. He is also awaiting sentencing on separate charges of mail fraud, conspiracy and tax evasion.

The former lobbyist's work with the North Marianas Islands and DeLay remains under investigation by the FBI and the Department of the Interior.