In an email, Demapan said Fitial will attend the hearing scheduled for July 14 at 10 a.m. EST in Room 1324 at the U.S. Capitol. The hearing will be conducted by the U.S. House Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, Oceans and Insular Affairs and will discuss the federalization law, which the governor opposed.
Fitial is now preparing his draft testimony which he plans to read before U.S. lawmakers during the oversight hearing.
“It basically bears similar sentiments that the governor and many local residents already expressed during the deliberations and enactment of the federal immigration law,” Demapan said.
Fitial is opposed to granting nonresident workers improved status but supports the extension of their umbrella permits which expires this November.
The subcommittee will also hold a legislative hearing on Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan’s H.R. 1466 which aims to address the status of nonresident immediate relatives of U.S. citizens and those granted permanent residency by the NMI government.
Congressman John Fleming, R-La. and chairman of the subcommittee, “cordially” invited Fitial to the hearing.
According to Demapan, the governor will “maintain his stance on these issues and it is expected that he will be reiterating the administration’s position as well as the pressing need to promulgate the transitional workers regulations.”
Sablan, Ind.-MP, is the ranking member of the subcommittee.
In a separate interview yesterday, Rep. Frederick P. Deleon Guerrero, the chairman of the House Federal & Foreign Affairs Committee, said “the governor is doing what he needs to do.”
For its part, the Legislature, he added, “will be hammering out a list of issues within the next couple of weeks in preparation for the hearing.”
Deleon Guerrero, Ind.-Saipan, said the subcommittee should also discuss the still pending regulations for CNMI-only transitional workers and the islands’ need for nurses and doctors.
