{"id":11665,"date":"2011-11-18T02:14:43","date_gmt":"2011-11-18T02:14:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newspaper.ctsi-logistics.com\/?p=11665"},"modified":"2011-11-18T02:14:43","modified_gmt":"2011-11-18T02:14:43","slug":"jobless-aliens-obtain-parole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/jobless-aliens-obtain-parole\/","title":{"rendered":"Jobless aliens obtain parole"},"content":{"rendered":"
‘Rather than resort to illegal job deals, seek humanitarian parole’<\/div>\n
By Haidee V. Eugenio
\nReporter<\/div>\n

\"Feliciano\u00a0\u201cYou never know until you try.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was what Nida Bautista, 55, had to say weeks after she personally carried a handwritten letter to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Garapan, asking for a grant of parole that will allow her to legally stay in the CNMI beyond Nov. 27 so that she won’t get separated from her U.S. citizen son and while she continues to look for a new job.<\/p>\n

USCIS granted her parole status until Jan. 31, 2012.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was very happy when I got a letter from USCIS granting me parole. If you don’t try to ask, you won’t get any. Having two months to prepare or look for a job will help me and my son a lot,\u201d Bautista told Saipan Tribune yesterday, showing her Form I-94.<\/p>\n

Bautista, who legally came to Saipan in 1994 to work as a house worker and later on as a commercial cleaner, is just one of the many unemployed nonresidents who have requested and were granted parole status by USCIS in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

A grant of parole is always discretionary, on a case-by-case basis, and is up to USCIS.<\/p>\n

Bautista, along with other unemployed workers who obtained parole, called on other nonresidents who have legally worked in the CNMI for years but recently lost their jobs due to the bad economy to also ask for parole instead of resorting to illegal employment agreements.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told USCIS that my son is still a high school student, and he doesn’t want to leave the CNMI where he’s born. I also don’t want to leave him here alone,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She hopes that Delegate Gregorio Kilili Sablan’s (Ind-MP) H.R. 1466, which proposes a \u201cCNMI-only resident status\u201d for four groups of people, including foreign parents of U.S. citizen children, will be signed into law before her parole expires.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause if we become out of status, we might not get covered by Kilili’s HR 1466 when it becomes law, so we need parole status to be able to stay here legally,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Another unemployed nonresident, Feliciano Mangahas, who does not have a U.S. citizen child on Saipan, said he also asked and was granted parole until Jan. 31, 2012.<\/p>\n

\u201cI lost my job in 2009 but I have an umbrella permit expiring on Nov. 27. I am really hoping I will get a job soon,\u201d the 47-year-old said.<\/p>\n

Mangahas, who came to Saipan in 2004 to work as a farmer, said the additional two months will allow him to continue looking for a job so he could support his seven children in the Philippines.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I really can’t find an employer, then I will go home but at least I have two more months to look for a job,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The \u201cnotice of parole status\u201d that accompanies the Form I-94 given to nonresidents like Mangahas reads: \u201cYour request for an extension of your parole has been approved. Your parole is authorized until Jan. 31, 2012. If you have not received any further information regarding your immigration status by Jan. 31, 2012, please contact USCIS office…\u201d<\/p>\n

A 36-year-old Chinese woman, who has a 6-year-old U.S. citizen daughter, also wrote a handwritten letter to USCIS on Oct. 27 to give her more time to process her \u201cgreen card.\u201d She said she got the parole notice on Nov. 8. Just like the others, she’s paroled until Jan. 31, 2012.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have more time to process my green card. Hopefully everything will work out fine,\u201d said the former garment sewer, who later worked in other legal jobs when the garment factories started closing one by one.<\/p>\n

Aida Camacho, 65, said she asked for parole on Oct. 13, also to be allowed more time to process her \u201cgreen card.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was told that I need around $1,700 to have my green card. I am working on it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Unlike the others, Camacho’s parole is valid until Oct. 29, 2013.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I am not going to wait for 2013 to get a green card,\u201d she said. Camacho lost her husband of 20 years last year, even before they could process her green card.<\/p>\n

She said she and her husband didn’t think that immigration will not undergo this change so they didn’t bother to process her green card for 20 years. Now she faces a loss of status after Nov. 27 if she doesn’t obtain her green card or does not ask for parole to allow her more time to do so.<\/p>\n

Camacho said she came to Saipan in 1986 to work as a house worker and later on as a room attendant at the Hyatt. She now runs a small vegetable business.<\/p>\n

Back in October, USCIS said nonresidents could not be granted parole to remain in the CNMI beyond Nov. 27 if they do not have an employer that will petition them for a Commonwealth-only worker, or CW, status, by Nov. 27.<\/p>\n

Without a pending CW application filed by their employer by Nov. 27, they could lose status to remain in the CNMI and face deportation.<\/p>\n

Bautista, Mangahas, and others who are in their situation said, however, that there’s no harm in asking for humanitarian parole, based on their experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd there’s no money involved here. You don’t need to pay to get parole,\u201d said Bautista.<\/p>\n

Nonresidents interviewed yesterday said they’re also hoping that USCIS will grant \u201cparole status for all\u201d nonresidents until Congress grants improved status to long-term foreign workers. This is among the reasons why many foreign workers have been holding a vigil near the USCIS office in Garapan.<\/p>\n

Less than 1,000 foreign workers of the estimated 13,399 eligible for CW status have so far been petitioned by their employers as of Nov. 10. With the Nov. 27 deadline drawing near, desperate jobless nonresidents are falling prey to illegal sponsorship deals just so they can be petitioned for a CW status and remain in the CNMI despite not having a real, paid job waiting for them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

‘Rather than resort to illegal job deals, seek humanitarian parole’ By Haidee V. Eugenio Reporter…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11665\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}