By Jude O. Marfil-Schwalbach
For Variety

WASHINGTON — The chairman of the U.S. Senate committee that has oversight jurisdiction over the CNMI and other insular areas will sponsor legislation to extend federal immigration law to the commonwealth, according to Allen P. Stayman, a committee staff member.
He said the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs submitted a draft of the bill on Friday night here, or Saturday afternoon on Saipan.
Titled “The Northern Mariana Islands Covenant Implementation Act,” the 14-page draft is now being reviewed by U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M.
It will be introduced before May 24 when the Senate goes into recess. (See related story on page 6)
Interior Deputy Assistant Secretary David B. Cohen, who helped write the bill, said he is pleased with the final draft submitted to the Senate which passed similar legislation in Feb. 2000. The U.S. House of Representatives, then under Republican control, did not pass the measure.
“I’m satisfied that we did the job that we were asked to do and that we did it conscientiously,” Cohen said. “We recognize that interested parties will have suggestions about how to improve the bill, and there will be plenty of opportunity to incorporate good ideas as the process unfolds.”
On March 20, Bingaman asked Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne to draft a CNMI federalized immigration bill using the text of then-Sen. Frank Murkowski’s bill as a template.
Murkoswki, R-Ak., authored the federalization bill passed by the Senate in 2000.
Bingaman was one of its co-sponsors.
“We approached this project with great care because all of us at (Interior) have a great deal of fondness and concern for the CNMI,” Cohen said. “We want to ensure that the people of the CNMI have the means to build a secure and prosperous future for themselves.”
Cohen said the White House has not endorsed the draft.
“We were not attempting to get the (Bush) administration to take a position on the draft bill,” he said. “We wanted to make sure that we were properly addressing the issues that the Senate asked us to address, that we were protecting the interests of the CNMI as well as those of the nation as a whole, and that we were offering solutions that were fair and workable.”
Section 6 of the draft bill states that the U.S. secretary of State will issue non-immigrant visas to aliens who have lawfully resided in the CNMI for at least five years prior to the enactment of the bill.
To qualify for this status, a CNMI resident alien should pass a criminal and terrorism background check as well as a medical examination, and is not ineligible on the basis of “moral turpitude, criminal record or public charge.”
“An alien with such status would be able to work, reside and attend educational institutions in the U.S. indefinitely, but would not be able to vote. The status would not provide a separate path to becoming a lawful permanent resident, but holders of such status would continue to be eligible for LPR status on any other applicable grounds,” the proposed bill stated.
This status is up renewal every 10 years.
For alien workers who do not meet the five-year requirement, they can still work in the commonwealth under either the CNMI-only guest worker program or the federal Immigration and Nationality Act’s provisions for foreign workers.
By 2018, it is envisioned that no CNMI-only work visas will be issued unless the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Labor decide to grant a five-year extension of the transition period.