Adoption of refugee protection regs delayed anew

The Attorney General’s Office has extended the comment period on the proposed regulations on refugee protection at the request of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The regulations were supposed to be adopted at the end of July, when the 30-day comment period ended for the revised version of regulations that were published in the June issue of the Commonwealth Register.

But Assistant attorney general Eric S. O’Malley yesterday said that the United Nations and the U.S. Immigration had asked for an extension.

“We received a request from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and the CIS to extend the comment period and allow them to submit their final comments. Also, the attorneys that we sent for training are not back yet,” O’Malley said.

The attorneys are receiving training on how to conduct deportation proceedings for refugee protection seekers. They should be able to serve as de facto judges when they return.

According to O’Malley, another revised version of the regulations will be published in this month’s Commonwealth Register. It will incorporate the final comments from the United Nations and the U.S. Immigration Services, which the AGO received only last Friday.

Another 30-day comment period will run before the regulations will be adopted.

The original proposed regulations were published in the Commonwealth Register’s May 24 issue. A revised version was printed in June to include recommendations made by the U.S. Immigration Services and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

In an earlier interview, O’Malley said the revisions were mostly technical or clarificatory.

For instance, the wording of “country of origin” has been changed to “designated place of removal.”

“[This will apply to an asylum seeker who, for instance,] was coming from China but was a national of North Korea. If they could show that they would be harmed by returning to China, then they would still be eligible for that protection. That was just a clarification to be consistent with international treaties. It was a kind of a language issue more than anything,” O’Malley said.

The regulations on persons seeking refugee protection aim to implement Public Law 13-61, which requires the Office of the Attorney General to promulgate rules and regulations enforcing the U.N. Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the U.N. Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

The United States is a signatory to both international conventions and treaties. Pursuant to Section 102 of the Covenant, the CNMI is required to conform to such forms of treaties.