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Chamber launches new immigration panel
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Posted on Jun 05 2008
The Saipan Chamber of Commerce has launched a new committee in a bid to prepare for the federal government’s pending proposal of new immigration regulations after President Bush last month signed legislation federalizing the island’s rules for foreign workers and visitors.
The chamber’s new committee, which has met twice in recent weeks, aims to influence the Department of Homeland Security’s immigration rule-making process with responses from the business community on how the regulations will impact the local economy.
Bush signed the legislation in May and it will bring the Commonwealth’s immigration procedures under federal control by June 2009.
“The regulations are on the way and we’re trying to have some input,” said Chamber president James Arenovski.
A host of unanswered questions remain about the government’s pending federalization of local immigration rules, he added, such as how they will affect foreign investors, homeowners and expatriates, what fees will apply to the hiring of foreign workers and how immigration rules will work during the transition from local control to a federalized system.
The new committee hopes to provide DHS with “questions and possible solutions” to the issues that federal authorities will address in the rule-making, he added. To accomplish this task, the committee plans to conduct “focus groups” with the local business community to hear its concerns, he said.
The committee is composed of eight members from various sectors in the local business community, including wholesale companies, the service industry and hotels.
According to an agenda for one of the committee’s meetings, members have addressed issues like how best to minimize the negative effects of the new rules on the local economy, how best to engage federal agencies on the issue and the preparation of a document the committee will distributed to federal officials.
Earlier this year, tourism industry leaders also met on Saipan to discuss the new rules and ultimately formed the Marianas Integrated Immigration Task Force. The task force had planned to meet on Guam this week, but the event was cancelled.
