{"id":386437,"date":"2023-03-02T06:02:34","date_gmt":"2023-03-01T20:02:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=386437"},"modified":"2023-03-02T06:02:34","modified_gmt":"2023-03-01T20:02:34","slug":"touchback-delay-eyed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/touchback-delay-eyed\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Touchback\u2019 delay eyed"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (D-MP) served as one of the guest speakers of the Saipan Chamber of Commerce\u2019s general membership meeting yesterday at Kensington Hotel Saipan.\u00a0(MARK RABAGO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While conceding that it will be an uphill battle, Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (D-MP) said he is working on a bill that seeks to put off the implementation of the \u201ctouchback\u201d requirement for CNMI-Only Transitional Workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will soon introduce legislation to delay the touchback requirement for another two or three years,\u201d he said in an email to Saipan Tribune.<\/p>\n

Sablan did touch on the touchback rule as one of the speakers of yesterday\u2019s Saipan Chamber of Commerce general membership meeting at Kensington Hotel Saipan, but he stopped short of stating his plans to introduce a bill to delay its implementation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be very difficult to get the touchback delay legislation in this Congress. But we are going to try our best,\u201d he told Saipan Tribune.<\/p>\n

Under U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services\u2019 touchback requirement, foreign workers with \u201cCW\u201d work visas must leave the CNMI for at least 30 days after two renewals of their CW-1 visa classification.<\/p>\n

Starting off on right foot<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sablan said he did reach out to Gov. Arnold I. Palacios and Lt. Gov. David M. Apatang as soon as they were inaugurated.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course I\u2019ve extended my hand of cooperation to past governors and I\u2019ve done the same to Gov. Palacios and Lt. Gov. Apatang and they also said we\u2019ll work together,\u201d he said during the Chamber meeting.<\/p>\n

Sablan said he also met Palacios several times when the islands\u2019 chief executive visited Washington, D.C. last month for a series of meetings. That\u2019s when he realized that he actually has spent more time with Palacios in the two months since his inauguration compared to his predecessor, former governor Ralph DLG Torres, in the four years he was in power.<\/p>\n

In his discussions with Palacios, he bluntly told Chamber members that he offered no silver bullets to solve the economic morass the islands are experiencing.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the governor has my commitment that I will do as much as I can and I will give him my full cooperation. I want the Chamber to know that upfront.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fiscal mess<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sablan also talked about the previous administration\u2019s alleged mismanagement of the nearly $500-million American Rescue Plan Act funds.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know how much money $500 million is. This has to be said out aloud. It has come to a point where the governor doesn\u2019t just need an accountant to find out where the $500 million was appropriated. He needs a forensic accountant to trace what happened [to the money]. This is really something we should be concerned about because this is going to come back and bite us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The now eight-term delegate to the U.S. Congress said there\u2019s still light at the end of the tunnel, though, in the form of federal assistance and grants.<\/p>\n

Sablan said he recently met with Chris Concepcion and his staff at the Office of Planning and Development and they gave him an update on the Garapan Revitalization Project, which is funded by federal monies.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s just one project out of a multitude of federally funded projects in the CNMI, according to him.<\/p>\n

Palacios requests<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sablan said Palacios didn\u2019t only ask for his help in tackling the touchback rule, but also other immigration matters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI promise you that I will cooperate with the governor. I\u2019ve been asked to do several things and one of which involved immigration and right now it\u2019s going to be difficult with this Congress; it\u2019s going to be tough. It was tough in the last Congress and it\u2019s going to be much tougher now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new administration\u2019s laundry list also includes removing the current cap on CW workers and a setup similar to Guam\u2019s that would finally enable the CNMI governor instead of the U.S. Department of Labor to issue temporary recertification for CW-1 visa applications.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not that I don\u2019t know, it\u2019s just that there are things I\u2019m just not able to do because of the politics in Congress,\u201d he said, adding that when H.R. 560 was tackled in committee, one member raised the question whether the Chinese in the CNMI are a national security concern.<\/p>\n

H.R. 560 seeks to grant permanent resident status for long-term foreign workers who\u2019ve been living in the CNMI since 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to pour on more but these are serious times. I don\u2019t see how to get out of this easily, especially for those businesses having trouble with the touchback rule. \u2026I\u2019m trying my very best but the member who blocked it last time had another issue and, without his consent it won\u2019t get anywhere and then you need the majority of the majority. In the GOP conference you need a majority of that to pass and I\u2019m not in the majority,\u201d said Sablan.<\/p>\n

Senate President Edith DeLeon Guerrero (D-Saipan) also served as the other guest speaker of yesterday\u2019s Chamber meeting where she talked about the CNMI\u2019s current tumultuous fiscal position and what needs to be done to rectify it.<\/p>\n

Details of her presentation will be published in tomorrow\u2019s issue of Saipan Tribune.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While conceding that it will be an uphill battle, Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (D-MP)…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":386439,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-386437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386437","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\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}