The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI / MP) was a coverage gap in this pipeline. This note documents what is actually there. The headline finding: CNMI’s ICE-detention footprint is real but small — a single shared contract jail holding roughly a dozen ICE detainees in early 2026 — set inside an immigration system that is unlike any U.S. state because of the CNMI’s distinct history and its still-active foreign-worker transition.

The Core Facts

• One detention site: the CNMI Department of Corrections in Susupe, Saipan (see facility entry). It is a Commonwealth jail holding local inmates plus a small ICE administrative population under a DHS intergovernmental agreement effective April 20, 2011 (~20 ICE beds).
• Scale: ~11 ICE detainees in early 2026 (per DOC Commissioner Anthony Torres); average daily population ~18-21, up from ~4/day in 2022; average ICE stay ~40 days.
• No dedicated ICE facility planned: ICE has stated it has no plans to build a standalone detention center in the CNMI; people held more than ~12 hours go to the Susupe DOC jail.
• ICE/ERO: Saipan ERO Sub-Office, (670) 237-6000; custodial authority via ICE San Francisco Field Office (the SF AOR covers Northern California, Hawaii, Guam, and Saipan).
• Immigration court: the Saipan Immigration Court (EOIR) operates with effectively one judge — part of a national pattern of judge shortages reported through Feb. 2026.
• HSI: a Mariana Islands Border Enforcement Security Task Force (BEST) (announced Feb. 2023, with CNMI and Guam) targets transnational crime, smuggling, and trafficking using the Marianas as an Asia-facing transit point — a security/HSI mission distinct from ERO civil detention.

Why CNMI Is Not a Mainland County (the load-bearing context)

• Self-governed immigration until 2008: The CNMI ran its own immigration and foreign-labor system for decades. The Consolidated Natural Resources Act of 2008 (CNRA) extended most U.S. immigration law to the islands; the transition period began Nov. 28, 2009 and now runs through Dec. 31, 2029.
• CW-1 transitional workers: A CNMI-only guest-worker visa (CW-1) supports the labor force that the local economy (tourism, construction, services) has long depended on. The cap is 8,000 in FY2026, shrinking to 5,000 by FY2029, before the program sunsets Dec. 31, 2029. Each cap cut, plus tightened admissibility scrutiny (e.g., prior overstay/misrepresentation bars), pushes workers toward loss of status.
• A built-in deportation cliff: Because so much of the workforce is on time-limited, employer-sponsored CW-1 status, routine program contraction — not dramatic raids — is the main driver of removability. This is structurally different from interior-enforcement sweeps in the Lower 48.

Enforcement Pattern (2025-2026)

CNMI ICE arrests visible in the record have skewed toward criminal/status-violation targets rather than mass street operations:

• George Delos Santos (Philippines) — arrested Aug. 27, 2025, a convicted child sex offender (30-year sentence), held at CNMI DOC pending removal.
• Lijie Cui — arrested Jan. 13, 2026 for allegedly overstaying an E-2C CNMI long-term investor visa; held at Susupe DOC, sought temporary release amid removal proceedings.

The detention population’s quiet roughly-5x growth (2022 → 2026) tracks the national surge (record >73,400 detained nationwide on a single day in mid-Jan. 2026) more than any single CNMI event.

Gaps / What’s Uncertain

• No public per-diem rate for the CNMI DOC–DHS agreement.
• Granular CNMI ICE arrest/removal counts for 2025-2026 are thin; figures here are point-in-time facility counts plus named cases, not a series.
• The Saipan Tribune “ICE: no plan to establish detention center” item reflects CNRA-transition-era (~2011) statements (John Morton prosecutorial-discretion memo, Nov. 27 umbrella-permit deadline); used here as historical framing, not 2026 news.
• Whether the 2029 CW-1 sunset will translate into a mass-removability event — and whether the single Susupe jail could absorb any resulting detention demand — is the key forward-looking question.

Sources

• ICE: CNMI Department of Corrections facility page
• ICE: Saipan, CNMI / ERO sub-office
• Marianas Press: 11 ICE inmates at CNMI DOC (early 2026)
• Vera Institute: ICE detention trends through March 2026 (territories incl. CNMI)
• EOIR: Saipan Immigration Court
• NPR: U.S. has a quarter fewer immigration judges than a year ago (Feb. 23, 2026)
• USCIS: U.S. immigration law in the CNMI (CNRA / transition through 2029)
• USCIS: CW-1 CNMI-only transitional worker cap (8,000 FY2026 → 5,000 FY2029)
• ICE: HSI announces Mariana Islands Border Enforcement Security Task Force (Feb. 2023)
• Marianas Variety: ICE arrests child sex offender (Aug. 2025)
• Global Detention Project: Saipan Department of Corrections (Susupe)
• USCCR: CNMI Advisory Committee report on justice-system healthcare (June 2025)