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50 alien workers fail to see visiting feds at AMP rally
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Posted on Jun 10 2008
About 50 alien workers staged a welcome rally for the visiting federal officials at the American Memorial Park yesterday.
The workers, who were planning to hold the rally until 8pm, decided to disperse at 5:30pm when they failed to meet with deputy assistant secretary for Insular Affairs Doug Domenech and Office of Insular Affairs Director Nikolao Pula.
Human Dignity Movement president Jerry Custodio said they were informed that Domenech and Pula were not at Hyatt Regency Saipan that time as the two officials went straight to the airport.
Custodio said they were still happy because he and Bangladeshi taxi drivers association president Rabby F. Syed, along with some of their officials, were able to hand to a member of the visiting team their petition for improved immigration status and some documents about workers’ uncollected wages and damages from previous employers.
The workers, all of different nationalities, converged at 10am near the entrance of Hyatt. They displayed a streamer that read “Improved Immigration Status For Long-Term Alien Residents” and “Fairness For All. Aliens + Citizens=Community.”
Other streamer carried messages such as “Human Rights= Prosperity”, “Equality of Rights Benefits 4 all Workers” and “ Liberate Workers 4 Strong Economy.”
Educator Ron Hodges and Coalition of United Workers (NMI) president Irene Tantiado dropped by for a few minutes to show support.
The federal officials are here for initial talks on the U.S. government’s takeover of local immigration control.
