{"id":229724,"date":"2016-06-10T06:06:27","date_gmt":"2016-06-09T20:06:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=229724"},"modified":"2016-06-10T06:06:27","modified_gmt":"2016-06-09T20:06:27","slug":"house-waits-unified-position-cw-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/house-waits-unified-position-cw-issue\/","title":{"rendered":"House waits for unified position on CW issue"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Contract<\/a>
Contract workers display signs showing the many years they have lived and worked in the CNMI at a meeting of the House of Representatives on the current labor crisis yesterday. (OFFICE OF GOVERNOR)
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Calling it \u201cpremature,\u201d House Speaker Ralph Demapan (R-Saipan) said it\u2019s too early too come up with a unified position from the House of Representatives on a stance on current contract worker issues even as Gov. Ralph DLG Torres and his team made their case clear in Washington, D.C. for an extension of the contract worker program past 2019 and improved status for longtime guest workers this week.<\/p>\n

Demapan said he would like to ask Rep. Angel Demapan (R-Saipan) and Senate vice president Arnold Palacios (R-Saipan) to have an audience with the Legislature to appraise them on the outcome of the \u201cSection 902\u201d talks with federal officials in the nation\u2019s capitol.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s basically it. It\u2019s just too early to come up with a unified position. The meeting is ongoing and it\u2019s premature for us to even to come up with a recommendation until we hear better or definitive information from our panel.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we will continue to brainstorm and see how we can best approach an issue,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Demapan spoke to reporters after a House meeting where lawmakers discussed the ongoing crisis of a breached contract worker cap that prompted the federal government to stop accepting permits after an early May deadline and to reject these and force workers who did not meet the cap and their families to leave within 10-days after their permits expire. <\/p>\n

The move is expected to force about 1,300 affected employees to leave the Commonwealth from May to October, the end of the fiscal year.<\/p>\n

Despite hesitating on taking an official stand on the issue, lawmakers expressed their concern with the plight of contract workers and agreed with and echoed concerns that this was a humanitarian crisis expected to uproot families and workers who\u2019ve contributed to the economy for years.<\/p>\n

During the meeting yesterday, contract workers in the House chamber and gallery held up signs with the number of years they\u2019ve been on island.<\/p>\n

One of these workers, Janet Hernando, has been on island for 25 years, and says she\u2019s been urging friends and families of those affected to not panic even as they plan to leave the island.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re planning [to leave]. But I tell them please don\u2019t go yet because you don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen,\u201d she said after the House meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been here the longest time and I know the ups and downs of Saipan and there\u2019s always a remedy to this I believe. Because local people, I know they need us contract workers because we\u2019ve been living and staying here. This is our second home. We would not be here if we did not love Saipan. I\u2019ve sacrificed my family, I\u2019ve seen my nephews, and their family grow up too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hernando says she works on island to give back home in the Philippines and would like to continue doing so.<\/p>\n

Asked what she would like the government to support amid the labor issues, Hernando said, \u201cImproved status.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been here 25 years. I think I\u2019m entitled for just the resident [status]. I am not after the green card not yet. Just to stay here. To continue living and working. I am supporting my family back home. I\u2019m helping them so that\u2019s all I need.<\/p>\n

\u201cI pay my tax. I don\u2019t have any bad record,\u201d she went on to say. \u201cI don\u2019t have any criminal case. I\u2019m totally clean. I just feel that anyone who is like me should be given improved status.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Improve status\u2019 and meeting with USCIS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Saipan Tribune revealed on Wednesday that Torres had asked the White House\u2019s support for improved status or a path to lawful permanent residency in meetings with President Obama\u2019s special representative and Department of Interior assistant secretary for Insular Area Esther Kia\u2019aina and in the position paper submitted to the federal government on labor and immigration issues.<\/p>\n

Still, Speaker Demapan said they would like to continue discussing the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe improved status has been discussed back in the 17th Legislature. Again, that is something that the Legislature would have to continue to discuss\u2026if it\u2019s leaning toward that position I cannot just unilaterally recommend that because that requires the body to discuss and sit down and see whether that would be the best approach.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added there was \u201cnothing definite yet\u201d but he feels \u201csorry for these people who\u2019ve been here long time ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

House fiscal chair Rep. Antonio Sablan (Ind-Saipan) also said all stakeholder should be gathered to make sure they come to a unified position on all the different labor issues and the 2019 extension, and if the government is going to push for an adjustment for the 2016 cap because \u201cwe obviously can\u2019t expect the 1,300 estimated affected individuals to get up and leave in 10 days.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut that\u2019s just counting the workers,\u201d he added. \u201cYou gotta take it into consideration the whole families\u201d who\u2019ve \u201cbeen here 15 to 25 years and all that.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he hopes the governor and the 902 talks team comes back and calls for a joint leadership meeting between the House and Senate, the Department of Labor, his administration, and the business sector to provide an update \u201con what was agreed upon and discussed\u201d and then assess \u201cwhat to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Demapan said he will write a letter to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services district director David Gulick to request an audience with him on the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to hear it directly from Mr. Gulick so we can see how we can best approach\u2026I see it\u2019s a federal matter and\u201d and extension of the CW program \u201crequires a Congressional action but what we are trying to do here is to come up with a position so we can assist our delegate [Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan] to whatever he intends to do,\u201d Demapan said.<\/p>\n

Demapan and Sablan are former local immigration officials.<\/p>\n

Delegate Sablan, for his part, has said he will introduce a bill to extend the contract worker program for 10 years with a 18,000 worker cap. <\/p>\n

But it\u2019s unclear right not how Torres\u2019 shift of position would accommodate a request for improved status in the 902 position paper and in talking with federal officials may affect Sablan\u2019s proposal. Sablan and Torres have earlier indicated a desire that the \u201clanguage\u201d for both their efforts through the Executive Branch and the Legislative Branch be in line with each other.<\/p>\n

Rep. Antonio Sablan also wants to hear directly from an authorized representative of USCIS instead of getting \u201cour piecemeal information from various sources.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that even the \u201cso-called clarification\u201d that was reported from USCIS yesterday still left a lot of questions. USCIS released a notice on Tuesday that workers under the 2016 cap could file for extensions or for change of employees, which was taken as nothing new for those who wanted to hear adjustments for the 1,300 affected employees who missed the 2016 cap and would have to leave.<\/p>\n

With regards to the cap, Sablan suggested the cap was not tracked correctly. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think somebody failed to keep a running\u201d tally \u201cand monitor the numbers that were being issued,\u201d he said. \u201cI think it was months ago that they had reached it and they should have stopped it back then. But it seems they\u2019ve continued to issue [permits] beyond the 12,999\u201d cap. He believes that otherwise, USCIS would have authorized the renewal of the 1,300 affected, if they hadn\u2019t issued permit beyond the cap.<\/p>\n

CW Rally on Sunday<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mami Ikeda, along with other contract workers at the House yesterday, are urging supporters to come out to a rally at Kilili Beach at 3pm Sunday on the current issues.<\/p>\n

Ikeda said some of the affected workers have already left the Commonwealth.<\/p>\n

Ikeda, who first came to Saipan in the 1970s, earns her living in processing documents and also is an active volunteer, helping out in various groups after the devastating Typhoon Soudelor.<\/p>\n

Ikeda says she does not do this because she wants something, she does it because \u201cthis is my home.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to help people. But it\u2019s just sad. This is what I think\u2014the government here created the contract worker program because they need a workforce. They started it. And if something happens [to the program], we need them to back us up.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what happened or did not happen with the CNMI permanent residents, Ikeda said, recalling how her deceased brother and father, who were given permanent residency by the CNMI government, were devastated when the federal government took over local immigration.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey became parolees,\u201d she said, \u201cwhich is a status-less people. These are people who were treated like U.S. citizens up until federalization came. And he was so mad\u2026he was so pissed off that he had to take one month off from work simply because he\u2019s [employment authorization document] was delayed and here were all his co-workers who were CWs working\u2026He was devastated. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe was trying to get some kind of status for himself. Dad passed away first and then he died as a parolee.\u201d <\/p>\n

Train locals<\/strong><\/p>\n

Meantime, Demapan urged that businesses renew focus in training local workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI personally would like to recommend and suggest to our businesses to start investing more and continue investing more on trainings. Because of this uncertainty, we have to continue investing more on trainings to try to maximize those employees to try and cover those [employees] lost and work closely with our [Northern Marianas College and Northern Marianas Technical Institute] so they can easily address the shortage of manpower<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026It appear to be late because the 2019 [expiration of the CW program] date is looming but you know you got to start to be doing this but you know this is the alternative that should be done rather than waiting for a last minute,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Calling it \u201cpremature,\u201d House Speaker Ralph Demapan (R-Saipan) said it\u2019s too early too come up…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":229752,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[26,67,119,4322],"class_list":["post-229724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-cnmi","tag-people","tag-uscis","tag-white-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229724","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=229724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}