By Jude O. Marfil-Schwalbach
For Variety

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs cannot meet the April 30 deadline for the submission of the draft of the much-awaited CNMI immigration federalization bill.
OIA will submit the draft bill to the U.S. Senate’s Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on May 5, Saipan time.
“We have moved back the deadline for the submittal,” said U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee staff member Allen P. Stayman, who came on a fact-finding mission to Saipan in February with fellow committee staffer Josh Johnson.
Once OIA submits the draft, a CNMI immigration bill will likely be introduced in the Senate.
David B. Cohen, Interior’s deputy assistant secretary for insular affairs, said they needed more time to confer with other U.S. agencies. Hence, the delay.
“Drafting the bill is a big job. We have been in constant communication with our colleagues within the executive branch. We could benefit by having a few more days to submit the draft bill,” said Cohen in an interview shortly before he left for New Zealand Tuesday morning.
Even though “the draft is in good shape,” Cohen’s office needed to tweak some provisions to also cover the concerns of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
“Given the tight deadline, we thought we could benefit from additional conversations (with Homeland Security) on the mechanism and logistics once the immigration bill is passed into law,” he said. Interior was asked to draft the bill on March 22.
Cohen said the delay has nothing to do with the proposed changes to federal immigration law that would grant amnesty to illegal immigrants in the U.S.
“The situation in the CNMI is much different from that in the U.S. There is an argument to be made that (the draft bill) does not have to achieve full consistency with the revisions in the U.S. immigration policy that the Bush administration is proposing,” Cohen said.
But he said the draft CNMI immigration bill will certainly address the issue of the islands’ long-term alien workers.
“I can not tell you at this point (the contents of the draft). But we have an obligation to address the concerns of workers (in the CNMI),” said Cohen.
The draft bill is now 17 pages long, Variety learned.
CNMI Federal Labor Ombudsman Jim J. Benedetto flew from Saipan to Washington, D.C. to help draft the bill.
“The draft is still a work in progress,” Cohen said. “And even if we submitted the draft, we are not sure that the Senate will adopt all the provisions (that we recommend) until a bill is formally introduced.”