NMI Bar Association president Maya B. Kara and her husband, immigration lawyer Bruce Mailman, told the over 100 IRs who attended the event that they will lose their immigration status under federalization if they fail to apply for permanent U.S. residency.
Most of the IRs said that they never applied for “green cards” because they either did not see any need to do so, or the minimum income requirements were out of their reach.
Irene N. Tantiado, United Workers Movement NMI, president, said the federalization law, or U.S. P.L. 110-229, doesn’t recognize the IR status, and after two years of the law’s implementation, IRs “will face deportation or may look for work in order to remain in the CNMI.”
“There’s no option — they cannot say that they don’t want to apply for a green card; they have to,” Tantiado said.
The IRs should seek legal assistance, she added.
She commended Kara and Mailman for providing a “community service.”
“They even paid for the event,” she said.
For more information, call the Law Offices of Mailman & Kara, LLC at 233-0081or fax 233-0090.
