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Dekada: Green card better than federalization
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Posted on Mar 24 2005
Dekada lawyer Stephen Woodruff views the statement of former Office of Insular Affairs director Allen Stayman as “encouraging,” but said that the grant of U.S. permanent residency status to its members would be more realistic than a complete federal takeover of the CNMI’s immigration and minimum wage policies.
“In principle, he recognizes the issue we’re dealing with. The only thing is the solution he recommends is different from the solution we recommend,” Woodruff said.
Limiting the solution to the granting of U.S. permanent residency—commonly referred to as “green card”—to alien workers who have been living in the CNMI for at least five years would be beneficial not only to the workers but also to the Commonwealth, Woodruff said.
Woodruff said he expected Stayman to be consistent with his position when the latter was still the OIA director. During his OIA stint, Stayman was vocal about his support for federalization of the CNMI’s immigration and minimum wage.
When Stayman was still OIA director, the U.S. Congress-created Commission on Immigration Reform recommended the grant of U.S. permanent residency to alien workers who would qualify under federal immigration law.
Although Stayman said that the move being undertaken by Dekada would unlikely succeed, Woodruff said the former OIA director still has concerns over the plight of alien workers in the CNMI.
Woodruff said that Dekada’s move is more realistic under a Republican Party administration, saying that pushing for federalization at this time is unlikely to succeed.
The granting of green cards to Dekada’s members would be enough to solve the humanitarian and legal issues behind their immigration status, the lawyer said.
He expressed optimism that Stayman would report his findings about the plight of alien workers in the CNMI to the U.S. Congress.
Last Wednesday, scores of Dekada members assembled across the Horiguchi Building in Garapan as Stayman and his fellow U.S. Senate staffers met with federal court chief judge Alex R. Munson.
With most of them carrying placards, members and supporters of Dekada joined the rally in their clamor for improved immigration status in the Commonwealth.
