These overstayers refuse to report to the Division of Immigration or the Department of Labor because they fear they will be deported immediately, he said.
Reyes said their group is set to meet with Labor and Immigration officials to discuss this issue.
“They were afraid to ask for a 30-days extension,” he said, referring to the overstaying guest workers.
The official list of overstaying guest workers, he added, is inappropriate, as it includes in those who are not overstaying and other who have already left the island.
He said their group is also finalizing the “clear list” so the Labor and Immigration office can compare it with their notes.
Early this month, the Department of Labor disclosed that less than 1,000 foreign nationals were overstaying in the CNMI.
Deputy Labor Secretary Cinta Kaipat said they have reasons to believe that this figure accounted for 90 percent of the total number of illegal aliens on the islands.
“The principal reason for this result is that in 2002 and prior years, there were generally jobs available so unemployment was not a cause of workers falling out of status as it is today,” she added.
Deanne Siemer, a volunteer consultant and a Labor administrative hearing officer, said if these overstayers “are picked up by Immigration, they will be deported.”
Irene N. Tantiado, United Workers Movement, NMI president, supports a dialogue with Labor and Immigration.
But she said her group already referred the problem to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security during a meeting last July.
“We asked Homeland Security to allow the overstayers to register and find work in the CNMI for a certain period,” she said.
Tantiado said she is also requesting Labor to give these overstayers a chance to legally join the CNMI labor force.
The number of guest workers on island is now less than Labor’s 22,000 cap, she added.
