The Fitial administration has hired a former federal immigration and customs enforcement officer, Melvin Grey, as the CNMI\u2019s new immigration director.<\/p>\n
Fitial and Attorney General Matthew Gregory announced Grey\u2019s hiring during a weekly press conference Friday at the Governor\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re happy to tell you on the appointment of Mr. Melvin Grey as immigration director,\u201d said Fitial.<\/p>\n
He said Grey is one of the five names recommended for the post by former immigration director and Covenant Party chair Martin Manglona.<\/p>\n
Manglona, who served temporarily as director, recently resigned, citing differences with some quarters in the administration.<\/p>\n
Manglona, a retired military man, had also worked briefly as immigration director under the Babauta administration.<\/p>\n
Fitial said Friday that Manglona remains a good friend.<\/p>\n
Meantime, Grey\u2019s hiring came amid revived fears of possible federal takeover of the CNMI labor and immigration in view of heightened scrutiny by U.S. Congress recently.<\/p>\n
In an interview Friday, Grey said that the takeover issue has been a concern for a long time,<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I came here in 1999, it was a very hot issue,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said he has not been in discussion with people on the particular issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll see what issues are involved. I\u2019ve been here only on the outside,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Upholding ethics<\/p>\n
As immigration director, he said he will put a premium on preserving \u201cintegrity\u201d within the office.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will comply strictly with standards and procedures,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He also wants to see a more \u201cefficient and user-friendly system\u201d to lighten workload in the immigration division.<\/p>\n
For instance, he said that instead of issuing extension visa cards to visitors, which takes a considerable time to issue, the immigration office can just request applicants to personally appear for interview and have their passports stamped. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no need for cards. It would be much easier and simpler, less on cost,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said he would also want to address the shortage of personnel in the division.<\/p>\n
Grey, 57, who is from Nevada, worked as CNMI resident senior special agent, INS\/Immigration and Customs Enforcement Unit of the Department of Homeland Security since 2001.<\/p>\n
He retired in 2004.<\/p>\n
He first came to the CNMI in 1999 to investigate a Chinese smuggling case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Fitial administration has hired a former federal immigration and customs enforcement officer, Melvin Grey, as the CNMI\u2019s new immigration director.<\/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-98337","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\/98337","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=98337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98337\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}