Alien worker groups back visa waiver program

Two associations of alien workers strongly support the “visa waiver program” for visitors from Russia, China, and Korea to save the CNMI’s ailing tourism industry.

Dekada Movement and Multi-Sectoral Overseas Filipino Workers Movement Inc. (MOVER) have expressed support for the waiver in letters to the Department of Homeland Security and Saipan Chamber of Commerce.

Dekada Movement president Bonifacio Sagana, Dekada secretary Hector T. Sevilla, and MOVER president Ernesto M. Maicle issued their positions on the waiver issue after a meeting with Chamber executive director Kyle L. Calabrese and Duty Free Shoppers Saipan president Marian Aldan-Pierce last Wednesday at the Café at the Park in Garapan.

Sagana, Sevilla, and activist Malou Berueco told Saipan Tribune yesterday that Aldan-Pierce and Calabrese arranged the meeting during which the two asked them to support the visa waiver program.

Sagana, Sevilla, and Berueco said they agreed that the program is vital to the CNMI’s economic survival.

They believe that the tourism industry’s decline will have a domino effect on the economy, thus affecting the jobs of alien workers as well.

The three said they want to send a message to the community that their members are not only after improved immigration status but are also concerned with the local economy.

Sagana and Sevilla, in their letter to Chamber president Jim Arenovski, said that eliminating the visa waiver program for Russia, China, and Korea will decrease the CNMI’s tourism base.

“Thousands of guest workers and their families will be affected if they lose their jobs if this program is eliminated,” the two Dekada officials said.

Dekada consists of 3,000 guest workers that include Filipinos, Bangladeshis, Chinese, and Nepalese.

MOVER president Maicle, in his letter to Homeland Security, said that, without tourist markets, the economy of the Marianas would break down.

He said their group believes that allowing visa waivers for visitors from Korea, China, and Russia would attract more tourists from these countries and improve the economy.

MOVER, a Filipino workers association established in 2001, is known for its campaign for a clean environment.

Federal officials from the Department of Homeland Security, Office of Insular Affairs, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, and Customs Border Protection, among other agencies, are currently on the island for a fact-finding mission.

They are holding meetings with government, business, and community leaders in line with the drafting of regulations implementing the federalization law.