“Publication of these regulations will help lift the uncertainty that has been hanging over the heads of businesses and workers in the NMI ever since the governor got the federal court to strike down the original regulations in November 2009,” Sablan said.
Saipan Chamber of Commerce president Doug Brennan has characterized the lack of regulations as “putting the brakes on our economy.”
But, Sablan said, “With the regulations now available, businesses will be able to make decisions about how many people to keep employed and whether the time has come to more actively recruit among local workers.
“And foreign workers will finally gain some certainty about whether they will have jobs here after November.”
At this morning’s teleconference, which included Kelly Ryan, deputy assistant secretary for policy at the Department of Homeland Security, Sablan was told the department planned on sending about a half dozen people to the Northern Marianas in mid-September, once local business people and workers had had a chance to look at the regulations.
“I am assured that Homeland Security will be holding workshops and answering questions on Rota, Tinian, and Saipan over about a two week period,” said Sablan. “Congressional staff will be working with businesses and all interested parties to make sure that DHS answers all the questions that are sure to arise about how these regulations will work.”
The worker regulations will lay out the process for employers to obtain a specialCNMI-only visa for their workers, who do not qualify for any other U.S. visa category. This CNMI-only visa will allow them to continue working in the Northern Marianas, but not in any other part of the U.S. The visa will be available until the end of the immigration transition period, now scheduled for 2014.
Interim regulations were first published on October 27, 2009. But a suit by the commonwealth government forced DHS to retract the regulations a month later. The court did not find any substantive problem with the regulations, but said the public comment process required by law was not followed.
Since the court action, workers and businesses in the Northern Marianas have been left in a state of uncertainty, guessing about what the rules for employment would be after the CNMI-issued visas that most workers now have expire in November 2011.
Sablan and other Members of Congress have kept up a constant clamor for DHS to re-issue the regulations. Last year, in reply to a letter from Sablan and Sens. Jeff Bingaman, D-NM, and Daniel Akaka, D-Hi., and Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.V., Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano said she expected the regulations to be out by the first quarter of 2011. But the final day of the quarter, March 31, came and went without any sign of the regulations.
Sablan shared his frustration regarding the delay with Chairman John Fleming, R-La., at a public hearing the very next day and Fleming agreed to bring DHS before his Insular Affairs Subcommittee for a hearing.
“Chairman Fleming and I had been discussing the need to bring DHS before the Subcommittee to explain the delay and other issues surrounding implementation of federal immigration in the Marianas,” Sablan recalled.
“But Secretary Napolitano’s failure to meet her own deadline on the regulations brought us to the tipping point.”
The hearing was held on June with Deputy Assistant Secretary Ryan representing the Department of Homeland Security.
