When the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) expired in 2005, thus eliminating quotas on textile exports to the United States, Saipan's garment factories started closing one after the other. From a high of 34 garment factories in the late 1990s, Saipan's last factory closed on January 15, 2009. On November 28, 2009, the federal government took control of immigration to the Northern Mariana Islands.