He noted that the CNMI has one year to prepare its own local manpower to fill the positions that will be vacated by nonresident workers once their umbrella permits expire in November next year.
Although “we should have done it 25 years ago,” Sablan believes it is not too late to prepare locals for private sector jobs.
In an interview on Friday Sablan said he is confident the CNMI will have enough U.S. citizens or permanent residents to take over most of the jobs currently held by guest workers.
“Our law has always been that there should be preference for U.S. citizens before we bring in workers from foreign countries,” he said.
For over two decades, however, the CNMI government handled its own labor and immigration system.
It was the local government and not the federal government that allowed foreign workers to enter the CNMI, Sablan noted.
It is “unfair” to blame the federal government for jobs now held by foreign workers, he added.
“We need to get together and fix this situation. We should start hiring as many U.S. citizens as we can,” he said, adding that the “blame game” does not help local businesses and U.S. citizens who need jobs.
Sablan believes that locals can do the jobs performed by foreign workers.
He said there are locals who, after being turned down by businesses here, ended up working in companies in the U.S. “where they really did well and eventually got promoted.”
“Having said that I feel that U.S. citizens should have access to these jobs and they will, starting in November of next year,” he added.
Local businesses, he said, should start providing jobs to U.S. citizens.
He said, however, that he is also aware that there may be some positions that will continue to require nonresidents.
Sablan at the same time acknowledged that the Workforce Investment Agency has been working a lot in helping locals get jobs “and that is great.”
There are also success stories that he heard from the Northern Marianas Trades Institute, and “we need more of those.”
NMTI, he said, is trying to “fill the gap.”
Sablan said he is also working with the Public School System to provide more vocational training in high schools.
