June Concillado, United Workers Movement vice president and adviser, said their group will meet on Friday to plan their “series of movements.”
He said the recent CNMI Senate’s draft recommendation on the status of long-term guest workers will not affect their position.
Concillado said they are not in favor of the Senate’s recommendation.
“The Senate’s recommendation does not reflect the sentiments in the past public hearings,” he said.
The local Senate will recommend the granting, in 2013, of CNMI-only residency status to guest workers who have been in the commonwealth lawfully for at least 10 years as of May 2008.
Concillado said while there are many nonresident workers who had been in the commonwealth for 10 years as of May 2008, they may be out status before 2013.
The CNMI Senate recommendation requires the approval of the U.S. Congress, which has not acted on a similar recommendation from the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Itos Feliciano, Human Dignity Movement president, said they support long-term status for legal foreign workers that will include a direct pathway to U.S. citizenship.
He said legal long-term foreign contract workers pose no threat to the CNMI community.
“We are legal guest workers who were invited here to build the economy and infrastructure of the Northern Marianas, and who were allowed to stay, year after year, with no prospect for adjusting to permanent residency, let alone a pathway to citizenship,” he said.
Feliciano said guest workers have a special and urgent situation that was created by a “unique and unjust set of CNMI immigration and labors laws.”
The Human Dignity Movement, he said, is appealing to the CNMI Legislature and other local leaders to support the long-term U.S. status and a pathway to citizenship for the legal long-term guest workers.
Concillado said their group will attend the scheduled public hearings of the CNMI Senate to present their testimony.
The Senate Committee on Federal Relations and Independent Agencies will conduct three more public hearings on Rota, Tinian and Saipan to discuss the recommendation with the people.
Public hearings will be held at the Rota Round House on Feb. 18; at the multi-purpose center on Saipan on Feb. 23; and at Tinian Elementary School on Feb. 25.
The committee held a series of public hearings last year in response to concerns that CNMI leaders and people were not consulted when Interior came up with its own recommendation to give long-term guest workers improved status.
