{"id":229002,"date":"2016-06-01T06:06:13","date_gmt":"2016-05-31T20:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=229002"},"modified":"2016-06-01T06:06:13","modified_gmt":"2016-05-31T20:06:13","slug":"cw-parents-expiring-permits-face-tough-choices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/cw-parents-expiring-permits-face-tough-choices\/","title":{"rendered":"CW parents with expiring permits face tough choices"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Attorney<\/a>
Attorney Mark Hanson fields questions from concerned contract workers during an informal question-and-answer forum organized at the Garapan Roundhouse yesterday. (Dennis B. Chan)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jasmine Kang, 9 years old, has two parents on expiring contract worker permits that, given existing federal procedure amid a contract worker cap that has been reached this year, will have to leave island within the next three months with a return to island uncertain.<\/p>\n

Kang joins an unknown number of children whose parents have permits expiring before Sep. 30, 2016, will be forced to leave the Commonwealth, after the federal government announced last month that it had reached the its cap of 12,999 CW permits for foreign workers and that no more applications would be accepted for fiscal year 2016.<\/p>\n

Asked how she felt about her parents leaving, Jasmine said she was \u201csad.\u201d \u201cI like Saipan,\u201d she also said.<\/p>\n

Jasmine\u2019s father, Zhao Fu Kang, runs an air-conditioning and electric repairs center and has been on island for 24 years. His contract worker permit expires on Sept. 16. <\/p>\n

\u201cI am already 60 years old. [My] baby is only 9 years old,\u201d he told Saipan Tribune yesterday after an informal question-and-answer forum was held at the Garapan Roundhouse between local attorneys and workers. \u201cAccording to the law, we have to go. But for the kids what are we going to do?\u201d<\/p>\n

Zhao also says his wife, who works with him as a technician, also has a permit that expires on the same day as his. <\/p>\n

Asked who would be taking care of his child if Zhao and his wife left the NMI, \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t like [the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to] take [care of] my kids,\u201d said another parent, Chen Fang, who has been on island for almost 20 years.<\/p>\n

Fang\u2019s application will expire in July and her husband\u2019s, a Filipino, will expire in August.<\/p>\n

They also have two kids in elementary school who risk losing their parents for an indefinite period, as businesses and workers compete for shrinking cap space next fiscal year 2017. The federal government reduced the cap by 1,000 for last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI stay here already 17 years,\u201d said Fang. \u201cMy husband already almost 20 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI asked my daughter, \u2018do you want to go China, do you want to go to Philippines?\u201d and she said, \u201cNo, I like Saipan. I like to study Saipan.\u201d Chen Fang says her daughters are aged 7 and 9. Fang and her husband work at Eucon International School.<\/p>\n

Through a translator, some of the workers at the forum yesterday described their situation as \u201ctough,\u201d \u201cunfair and \u201cdepressing\u201d and \u201cupsetting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attorney Mark Hanson, one of the lawyers that fielded questions yesterday, sought to clarify some notions about possible \u201chumanitarian parole\u201d for affected workers.<\/p>\n

He said humanitarian parole would not apply to people after January 2012.<\/p>\n

Hanson says workers would not be able to qualify for humanitarian parole that others got that had umbrella permits, or employment authorization document in 2012.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things that I am hoping that the governor and our congressman do, and they probably are,\u201d Hanson said, \u201cis trying to have Homeland Security provide some sort of relief for the people who have U.S. citizen children here.<\/p>\n

Because you guys already know, President Obama\u2019s already said that we shouldn\u2019t try to remove people that have [U.S. citizen children], but it doesn\u2019t help their employment status. They are still going to be overstayers. They\u2019re still going to have a problem with employment, they are not going to be able to fall back into the CW-1 program. But maybe they can get Homeland Security to agree to expand the humanitarian parole program to the new people that get capped out that have U.S. citizen children here. Maybe. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s the only special category that I can see out of all of this\u2026Everybody else that\u2019s been here 30 years, and you\u2019re children are already gone to the states or not\u2014it doesn\u2019t matter how long you\u2019ve been here\u2014you are going to have to go back if you are capped out,\u201d Hanson said.<\/p>\n

Some workers complained yesterday of an alleged late notice with renewal deadlines.<\/p>\n

Selinda Chen and her husband, Yang, said nobody gave them a message that they needed to renew six months before their expiration.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know that. Before, every year it is three months before renewal but nobody told us\u201d this year about the six month deadline, said Selinda Chen, who has been on Saipan for 11 years.<\/p>\n

Selinda and Yang have two kids\u2014boys aged 2 years and 4.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven when we go China for vacation, my baby always say, \u2018Saipan is my city,\u2019\u201d said Selinda Chan.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the car, every month we put [money in] bank, we have contract written for a leased house\u2014everybody [here has] business here,\u201d said Yang, whose permit expires in Sept. 23<\/p>\n

\u201cI deliver hand-made souvenirs. Very busy. Very good business,\u201d he told Saipan Tribune. Yang says he\u2019s been here for 12 years already.<\/p>\n

Two big misconceptions<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hanson noted two big misconceptions that workers may have amid the ongoing issue.<\/p>\n

One, he said is it does not matter how long one has lived on island, because, unfortunately, the \u201cqueue was the queue.\u201d He was speaking about USCIS\u2019 processing of permits.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody got in line and there was no priority given to any of them. There is no real way to work a priority system like that. It just had to be first-come, first-serve.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the other big misconception,\u201d he added, \u201cis that there\u2019s some sort of \u201cright\u201d to stay here if one has U.S. citizen children. And there\u2019s just not under the CW program, the transitional worker program.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey might be able to avail of themselves of some relief from deportation but that\u2019s not a good situation. So it\u2019s better just solidify the CW status.<\/p>\n

Noting that there some in the unfortunate position with kids and expiring permits at different months, he asked, \u201cWhat do they do? They are in a hard situation. Both of them have to go and split up the family. So in those situations one of them is going to have to leave and one of them is going to have to make some hard decisions of what is right.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut they can come back,\u201d he added. \u201cEverybody can come back. Just not until 10 days before Oct. 1.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hanson urges that workers should be applying \u201cnow and now and whenever they can to get in the cue.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause as soon as these big companies out there that are going to be hiring a thousand workers at time, and if 10 of them do it, we are going to be capped out again.\u201d <\/p>\n

It\u2019s believed that new developers have taken a large chunk of the CW cap, mostly for new permits for their construction permits, beating long-time employees for permit space.<\/p>\n

Hanson also said, small employers especially have to be diligent in advertising available positions held by the contract workers and getting in queue as soon as they can within 180 days of the permits\u2019 expiration.<\/p>\n

\u201cGet in as soon as you can and make sure everything is correct in the petition so that all the advertising is done properly and the certifications is done\u2026if you get it all in time, you shouldn\u2019t have a problem with the 2017 cap,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Leeway<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hanson also suggested that those with permits expiring in mid-September might not have to leave island.<\/p>\n

He explained that workers\u2019 legal stay lasts 10 days after their permit expires. But that their stay also starts 10 days before their new permit. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo there is a 20-day legal stay gap before Oct. 1,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo people who are expiring, say Sept. 11, 12, or 13, can stay 10 days longer, and if they have an already approved Oct. 1. start petition\u2014they can stay 10 days before that. So they overlap, they meet. Which means there is effectively a 20-day window where people that expire in that 20 days might not have to go back to their home country…They might be able to process here,\u201d added Hanson.<\/p>\n

He suggested that these workers write a well-worded cover letter to USCIS that explains the \u201ctiming\u201d of their situation so they would not have to leave.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026They might be able to processes without going home. And that\u2019s the big thing for some employers\u2026the cost of sending everybody back for a couple of weeks and bringing them back again would be a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jasmine Kang, 9 years old, has two parents on expiring contract worker permits that, given…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":229023,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[118,1699,163,67],"class_list":["post-229002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-cw","tag-homeland-security","tag-kids","tag-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229002","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\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}