U.S. Department of Justice Office of Immigration Litigation Senior Litigation Counsel Theodore W. Atkinson, who was already on-island for the scheduled hearing, had a “medical emergency,” Variety learned.
Asked for comment, the plaintiffs’ attorney Stephen Woodruff said yesterday that as of 6 p.m., he had not received a notice that the matter had been taken off calendar.
He said he and his clients will still appear in federal court tomorrow.
The plaintiffs, who are longtime nonresident workers, and small-scale entrepreneurs, are asking the federal court to stay the imposition of the CW final rule for 180 days.
CNMI-issued umbrella permits expired yesterday.
Woodruff said he is “sympathetic” to Atkinson’s plight.
But the federal court has yet to make a determination on Atkinson’s medical condition, Woodruff added.
Today’s preliminary injunction hearing, in the event it is postponed, does not have a “significant effect on the lawsuit,” Woodruff said.
Late yesterday afternoon, this reporter went to the campsite of nonresidents outside the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Garapan, but it was already abandoned.
Variety was told that the nonresidents left at about 7 a.m. yesterday after the CNMI government did not grant their request for their permit’s extension.
