What’s at stake?

Criselda B. Hernandez
Cyd Xyrene Gojar Tribiana was only two years old when his parents moved to Saipan, the capital of the United States Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), to work for the garment industry.

A promising student, Tribiana, who won this year`s Attorney-General’s Cup speech competition that focused on the federalisation of CNMI immigration and the relationship of the United States with the CNMI under the Covenant that established the relationship between the two, calls Saipan his home.

But after 15 years, Tribiana, now 17 and not a US citizen, and his parents, who lost their jobs due to garment factory closures, need to go back to the Philippines.

Tribiana’s parents are among the estimated 8000 foreign workers who, even after years of legal employment, have yet to taste what it feels to have a job security or an improved immigration status.

The CNMI economy relies heavily on foreign workers—from engineers and nurses to accountants, auto mechanics, garment sewers, farmers and house workers—mostly from the Philippines, China and other Asian countries.

Now that the US Congress and US Department of the Interior have taken another close look at CNMI’s labour and immigration, long-term guest workers may finally be given an improved status.

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, during the Saipan leg of his visit to US-affiliated Pacific islands communities last month, reiterated the federal government’s support of the fair treatment of long-term guest workers in the CNMI.

“If guest workers lose status because of changes in the law in the Northern Marianas or because of economic downturns, the federal government can still give them status,” Kempthorne said during a media conference.

David Cohen, the Interior’s deputy assistant secretary for insular affairs, said while there’s certainly a risk that long-term guest workers might leave once given a non-immigrant status, limiting the options for them especially in these times of economic hardships would leave them more vulnerable to exploitation.

“We want people to stay in the CNMI because their employers value their contributions; because if employers don’t, the workers can go to Guam, Hawaii, and other places,” Cohen told reporters.

“We understand there’s a trade-off there. But we don’t want people to be in the CNMI because they have nowhere else to go.”

The Department of Interior was asked by the US Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources to draft the CNMI immigration bill which was introduced in the US Senate on June 15.

The bipartisan bill, numbered S.1634, was introduced by Hawaii Senator Daniel K. Akaka and co-sponsored by Washington Senator Mariana Cantwell, Hawaii Senator Daniel K. Inouye and Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski. Except for Murkowski, all the bill’s sponsors are members of the ruling Democratic Party.

The bill grants “lawful non-immigrant status” to eligible long-term guest workers and their spouses and children.

This will allow them to freely travel, work and study anywhere in the United States, its territories and its possessions like citizens of the Freely Associated States or those from Palau, Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia.

On July 19, the US Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources—the same panel that asked the Interior to draft the CNMI immigration bill—will hold a public hearing on the bill.

The hearing, to be held at the Senate Dirksen Building Room 366 in Washington DC was originally set for June 28 but CNMI Gov. Benigno R. Fitial asked for a later date to be able to better prepare their testimony.

Besides Fitial, the other witnesses include Kempthorne, CNMI Resident Representative Pete A. Tenorio and Saipan Chamber of Commerce president Juan T. Guerrero.

Under the Interior-drafted bill, a five-year non-immigrant visa will be provided to non-residents who have been legally employed in the CNMI for at least five years.

The eligibility requirements include passing a criminal and medical background check. The eligible foreign workers and their spouses and children should file applications within one year of the date of the enactment of the immigration measure.

The US Department of Homeland Security will be the one to issue the non-immigrant visas to qualified applicants although these provisions in the bill can still be amended.

According to the CNMI government data, some 8000 foreign workers have been legally employed in the CNMI for five to nine years. That may qualify them for a non-immigrant visa should the immigration bill is passed.

But this figure does not yet include those who have been working in the CNMI for at least 10 years, like Arsen Hembra, 45, who has been here for 19 years.

Hembra came to Saipan in 1988 to work as a printing press operator. He remembers getting paid US$2.25 an hour at the time until the minimum wage was raised to US$3.05 an hour in 1996. One of the longest serving employees in his company, Hembra said he now receives US$4.15 an hour.

Although he recognises he should have been paid more than this for his almost 20 years of service, he said he has no other option but to stick with the company. “Going home is not an option,” he told ISLANDS BUSINESS.

Hembra said when he got here 19 years ago, he had already heard of stories about getting a US visa after five years of legal employment on Saipan.

“I’ve heard the same stories for years. They always turned out to be just rumours, giving us false hopes. But I think this time it’s for real although not a US citizenship, a non-immigrant visa is better than nothing at all,” he said.

Hembra said should the immigration bill becomes law, he is not going to move to the US mainland but to Guam which is still near his home country, the Philippines.

“I heard that in Guam, printing press operators are paid over US$10 an hour,” he added.

Interior’s Cohen clarified to Saipan media that the bipartisan bill would allow long-term foreign workers to live in the United States indefinitely—a privilege currently enjoyed by citizens of Freely Associated States—but not to apply for US citizenship.

Cohen told the local media that a non-immigrant status is different from “permanent residence” which is granted to qualified non-US citizens who successfully apply to become “immigrants.”

Permanent residents get “green cards” and are generally eligible to apply for US citizenship after five years, he said.

The Fitial administration and other members of the local community in the CNMI are opposed to the federal control of immigration only because of a provision that will change the status of long-term guest workers.

But, as Cohen told the local media, the bill tries to balance the concerns of the residents and no-residents in the CNMI.

He said there is no basis for fears that the one-time grandfathering provision would result in thousands of foreign nationals becoming US citizens and participating in local politics in the future.

This is because the bill would only grant a non-immigrant status not US citizenship unless long-term guest workers qualify or become qualified under some provisions of the law like marrying a US citizen or through an employment-based immigrant visa.