The plaintiffs, who filed the complaint without a lawyer, are asking the U.S. District Court for the NMI to declare the implementation of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security-issued transitional worker regulation that took effect last month as “unlawful and exceeds [the] defendants’ constitutional and statutory authority.”
The petitioners are foreign workers in the CNMI who are “adversely affected by the full-implementation of the CW final rule.”
They are asking for “a judgment declaring that the CW final rule is unlawful and violates their rights “under the U.S. Constitution.”
They are also requesting to “permanently enjoin defendants, their subordinates, agents, employees, and all others acting in concert with them from subjecting plaintiffs/petitioners to the implementation of the CW final rule and issue injunctive relief to rectify the statutory and constitutional violations of the CW final rule.”
On Nov. 29, 2009, the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act through the Consolidated National Resources Act was extended to the islands, ending the CNMI government’s immigration control.
On Sept. 7, 2011, DHS released the CNMI-only transitional worker classification final rule.
CNMI-issued umbrella permits will expire on Nov. 27, 2011.
Some 16,750 foreign workers will not be able to qualify for federal immigration visa, according to court documents.
The petitioners are Gerardo De Guzman who has lived and worked in the CNMI for 22 years as an accountant; Hector Sevilla, an architect, who has lived and worked in the CNMI for 22 years; Carlito Marquez, on island for 14 years, is a machinist and currently working at one of the power plants on Saipan as health safety and environmental officer; Bonifacio Sagana, Dekada Movement president, has uncollected monetary judgments from the CNMI Department of Labor, and has been on island for 22 years; Eduardo Elenzano, an award-winning artist, living on the island for 23 years; Lee Jong Ho, president of the Korean community on Saipan and engaged in small- scale business; and Manuel Vilaga, a U.S. citizen engaged in small-scale contracting business.
Except for Marquez and Lee Jong Ho, the rest of the petitioners have U.S. citizen children.
Named respondents were U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano; U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services District Director David Gulick; U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis; and U.S. Department of Labor District Director Terrence Trotter.
“With all the hoopla and confusion from local and federal agencies, no one from the agencies tasked to manage the orderly transition to federal immigration spoke up about the issues confronting the labor and immigration status of the workers affected,” the complaint stated.
It added that “some of them are grievously affected by the lack of action on the nonresident workers’ labor and civil cases reflecting previous grievances under the CNMI Department of Labor and Immigration which was not addressed by the phasing out of the CNMI nonresident worker program under DHS, USCIS and the U.S. Department of Labor.”
The petitioners told the court the “defendants” suffer no injury if and when the CW final rule is delayed but foreign workers who are adversely affected by its implementation will suffer the greater injury of being deprived of their ‘life, liberty, and property without due process of law.’ ”
“The implementation of the CW final rule in such a short period of time is an affront to the human dignity of nonresident workers who have relied on the U.S. government as a bulwark for the protection of human rights. The lack of consideration for which it is being enforced is unjust and inequitable. Nonresident workers in the CNMI have dedicated the better part of their lives in this country and have worked hard not just for their families who are also on this island but has contributed much to the CNMI economy,” the complaint stated.
