The enactment of a bill that made changes to the foreign worker program in the CNMI\u2014the CW-1 program\u2014concerns Senate President Arnold I. Palacios (R-Saipan), specifically the construction worker provision.<\/p>\n
U.S. President Donald J. Trump enacted Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan\u2019s (Ind-MP) H.R. 339 last week, opening up a 350 more CW-1 slots, increases the amount of CW-1 fees that employers pay, and excludes post fiscal year 2016 construction workers from the CW-1 program.<\/p>\n
Palacios said he is most concerned about the construction worker provision of the new law as incoming foreign construction workers are now unable to work under the CW-1 program and employers are now required to secure H2-B visas for these workers.<\/p>\n
Citing the construction worker crisis in Guam, Palacios hopes that \u201ceverything will be fine\u201d in the CNMI compared to Guam.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope everything will be fine, considering the situation what Guam is experiencing with construction workers under H2-B,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Guam has had an almost 100-percent rejection rate for construction workers under the H2-B visa program.<\/p>\n
Palacios also pointed out that aging construction workers might be a problem since the new law omits newer CW-1 construction worker applications.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, [assuming] that we got the CW-1 program extended, that provision means we still couldn\u2019t bring in construction workers unless they have been here [prior to the accepted date],\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom the very beginning that was a cause for concern and that provision kind of restricted ourselves. I hope we didn\u2019t shoot ourselves in the foot with [this provision],\u201d he said, adding that Congress did not even give half of Sablan\u2019s initial request of 2,002.<\/p>\n
Trump enacted Sablan\u2019s HR 339 into law last Wednesday morning, signifying for the first time in the CW-1 program\u2019s history an increase in slots. Besides the increase in slots, which also for the first time assigned 60 slots to the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. for health-related professions and 10 slots to the Commonwealth Utilities Corporation for engineers, the new law removes construction workers from the CW-1 program and increases to $200 the education fee employers are required to pay when petitioning a foreign worker.<\/p>\n
The fee is to be used to fund the education of U.S.-eligible workers and U.S. permanent residents. <\/p>\n
Sablan reiterated during his press conference last week that H.R. 339 was meant to be a \u201cshort-term solution\u201d to the problems raised from the horde of Chinese construction workers hogging 4,000 CW-1 slots. Sablan added that a longer-term solution for the CW-1 crisis is in the works.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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