The regulations are crucial and important components of the federalization law because they interpret how the changes should be carried out when hosting migrant workers, foreign investors and their dependents, said Peggy Gleason, an attorney in Washington, D.C. who is now with the Catholic Legal Immigration Network Inc. or CLINIC.
David Gulick, regional director of the U.S. DHS Citizenship and Immigration Services, said their goal is to have the regulations published in the Federal Register 60 days before Nov. 28.
Gulick, who is based in Hawaii, was among the keynote speakers for the two-day legal and educational training about the federalization law that the Church-based group Karidat and CLINIC co-sponsored.
He said the members of the community must understand that their inputs in drafting the two regulations are equally important in the process.
“We do not pretend to be experts on this but we will need your comments and your comments will have to be written to us in the address provided in the Federal Register,” he said during the training attended mostly by local attorneys.
American Samoa and the CNMI are the only U.S. jurisdictions not under federal immigration law.
Gulick said this is the first time since 1952 that a major immigration transition in a U.S. jurisdiction will happen and they want to make sure that everything will be done properly and in accordance with the law.
The CNMI had 16,000 documented foreign workers as of late last year.
This number, however, is expected to have dropped during recent months as more businesses downsize or shut down their operations.
