‘Dekada petition a pipe dream’

Former Insular Affairs Office director and now U.S. Senate Energy Committee staff Allen Stayman said yesterday that he agrees with OIA Deputy Assistant Secretary David Cohen that granting of permanent residency status to long-time nonresident workers in the CNMI is unlikely to happen.

Speaking on behalf of the Senate panel, Stayman said, “We support the statements that were made by [Mr. Cohen] that the U.S. Congress is most likely to be unsympathetic to the granting of permanent resident status to guest workers in the CNMI.”

A group of nonresident workers known as Dekada has been wanting to meet Stayman to discuss their quest for improved immigration status in the CNMI.

The group had gathered outside the U.S. District Court Wednesday in time for Stayman’s visit, purportedly to welcome him and ask for his support to their petition.

The group never got the chance to meet with Stayman, who was set to leave for Guam early this morning.

Stayman told reporters, though, that the U.S. Senate has been “familiar with the movement.” He said it is an issue that the Senate is not ready to handle right now.

“They [senators] said that’s not an issue that we’re prepared to deal with,” said Stayman.

But the former OIA director, who is now with Democrat senator Jeff Bingaman, a ranking member of the Energy Committee, remains in favor of federalization in the CNMI.

The U.S. Senate, he said, has been on record …”that the immigration system here should be ran by the federal government.”

“That’s not to say that there should not be a guest worker program. [The] guest worker program is important to the economy of the Northern Marianas, but it’s felt that the federal government can run that system more efficiently, more effectively,” said Stayman.

During his stint at OIA during the Clinton administration, Stayman was vocal in his support of the federalization of the CNMI. This resulted in some conflict between him and some local authorities, who oppose the move.

Stayman and another committee staff, Josh Johnson, flew to Saipan this week to conduct a fact-finding mission on various issues, including the CNMI government’s spending of federal funds.

The two met with the Babauta Cabinet, the Legislature, Saipan Chamber of Commerce, among others, during their two-day trip.

Johnson, who leaves this afternoon, is scheduled to sit down with members of the Saipan Garment Manufacturers Association this morning.

Meantime, Stayman said that, as designed, the CNMI’s guest worker program is just that—for guest workers—and not for anything else, such as a way to achieve permanent residency status, as pushed by Dekada members.

Dekada legal counsel Steve Woodruff said yesterday that Stayman’s position “is even better.”

“What he said is really important in that he continues to favor federalization. What does that mean? That means that he is 100 percent concerned about exactly the same things that Dekada is concerned about. He just has a different solution,” said Woodruff.

He said that Dekada does not really intend to go as far as federal takeover of the CNMI’s immigration to solve their problem.

Woodruff expressed doubts that federalization would happen anyway under a Republican or Bush administration.

“As long as President Bush is there, I don’t think federalization would ever be achieved. I don’t think that there is going to be any chance that Stayman’s goal of federalization of the CNMI’s immigration would ever be achieved,” he said.

“But I think there would be a chance that this fundamental problem could be addressed by other means [such as Dekada’s petition for improved immigration status],” he said.

Dekada said its members deserve to obtain improved long-term residence status, citing their contributions to the CNMI’s economy.

It said that most of its members already have children who are U.S. citizens and that they have spent their lives in the Commonwealth for more than a decade.

Woodruff believes that Congress has the power to give Dekada members a “special green card” or any other means of improving their immigration status.

Earlier, Cohen said that, while he has great sympathy “for hardworking and talented people” who share the American dream, people should be astute enough not to be misled into believing that they could get green cards.

“I want people to come to the CNMI for the right reasons, and not based on the mistaken belief that it will somehow improve their chances of becoming U.S. citizens,” Cohen said.

Washington Rep. Pete A. Tenorio had echoed Cohen’s position, saying that based on his talks with U.S. Congress staffers, there is no way that the Dekada members’ petition would be entertained in Congress.

“U.S. Congress cannot and will not provide permanent residency to Dekada. I’m not trying to discourage them. They can do what they want, but I want to be honest with them and be very straightforward about it,” Tenorio said.

Dekada has some 3,000 members.