CNMI officials described the talks as “productive” but added that it is still premature to say if they would influence Gov. Benigno Fitial to drop his proposed lawsuit against the federal government.
Howard P. Willens, the governor’s special legal counsel, his wife, attorney Dianne Siemers, senior policy advisor Ray Mafnas and other key administration officials joined Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Villagomez in meeting the visiting officials from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Department of the Interior, Customs Border Protection and Office of Detention and Removal Operations.
The governor was on Rota to attend the funeral of the mother of his running-mate in the 2001 elections, former Education Commissioner Rita H. Inos. Fitial is expected to return to Saipan today.
Fitial has said that he will discuss the visa waiver program in relation to the CNMI tourism industry as well as issues about the foreign guest worker and foreign investment programs when he meets with the visiting federal officials again.
Igor V. Timofeyev, the chief negotiator and director of immigration policy and special advisor for refugee and asylum affairs of Homeland Security’s Office of Policy Development, said their meeting went well and they expect to gather more information as they proceed in drafting the implementing regulations for the federalization provisions of U.S. Public Law 110-229.
“We came here mainly because of the law that the U.S. Congress recently passed federalizing the immigration system in the CNMI and also to make modifications to the visa waiver program, that Guam administered, which will now become the Guam-CNMI visa waiver program,” he said.
“Really, we look at this as the beginning of a dialogue,” he added. “We have two productive meetings this morning. This is a fact-finding mission. We look forward to a more productive dialogue.”
Timofeyev and the nine other members of the federal delegation are scheduled to meet today with lawmakers.
He declined to comment on the possible impact of the negotiations on Fitial’s proposed lawsuit against the U.S. government.
“I think I don’t really want to comment on the issue. I don’t think I’m in a position to comment. Not in a situation now where there is no lawsuit filed yet,” he told the media. “I have met the governor when we arrived on island and we had a very productive discussion with him. We look forward to working with him.”
Some administration officials, who asked not to be identified, said there is no change in the governor’s planned lawsuit despite the ongoing negotiations.
“It’s premature to say the lawsuit would be dropped because of these talks,” one of them said.
Timofeyev said their goal is to ensure that federal border security is applied to the CNMI without jeopardizing its economic interests.
The governor earlier raised concern over the possibility of losing its foreign workers after 2014 as well as its potential tourism markets — China and Russia — due to visa restrictions.
Timofeyev said these issues are part of their discussions.
Certain programs will be introduced in the CNMI once the full federalization law kicks in such as Biometrics — defined as the science and technology of measuring and analyzing biological data of a human like his fingerprints, eye retinas and irises, voice patterns, facial patterns and hand measurements.
There are currently over 19,000 documented foreign workers in the CNMI. All of them will be treated as transitional workers when the federalization law kicks in next year.
The U.S. advised the CNMI government that it can only hosts up to 22,000 foreign workers from now on.
Their employers have the option to hire them under at least two federal guest worker programs entirely separate from what will be introduced to replace the current CNMI-only guest worker program.
