There will be significant changes in local policies involving labor, immigration, foreign investments and the entry of tourists, she added.
Guest workers, for their part, should continue to advocate issues affecting them, Doromal said, referring to an improved immigration status for long term guest workers, the processing of H-1 and H-2 visas, and the application of the U.S. asylum laws to the CNMI.
She said the regulations should also address the status of those people who were granted CNMI permanent residency in and the alien spouses of citizens of the Freely Associated States.
She reiterated that federal officials have repeatedly assured the Fitial administration and the public that the rumor about the departure of all foreign workers from CNMI due to the passage of the federalization law is not true.
“The federal officials have promised that the CNMI will have the needed workforce through the new federal program,” she said.
Doromal said the regulations and policies for the new law and federal guest workers program are being formulated now. “No one can predict what they will look like,” she said.
She urged guest workers to stand firm in their struggle to secure political rights, saying that social justice and true reform cannot be achieved merely through legislation.
“It will be achieved through changing people’s hearts, through speaking out and through education,” she said.
