“We better check if she has the license or authority to say that,” he said, referring to U.S. Pinoys for Good Governance chairwoman Loida Nicolas Lewis, an industrialist and philanthropist.
Fitial said whoever is saying that overstayers in the CNMI cannot be deported right away, “is just looking for business here.”
The governor said his administration is now working with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement with regards to overstaying nonresidents.
Press Secretary Angel A. Demapan said anybody can express his personal opinion “but it’s time to be realistic.”
Giving workers false hope, he added, is not doing them justice at all.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has already “reached out” to employers and nonresidents so Lewis “should not add more confusion.”
Last week, Lewis, an attorney for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services from 1979 to 1990, received the Trailblazer of Democracy Award from The Eleanor’s Legacy organization during its fall luncheon at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City.
Eleanor’s Legacy is an organization focused on empowering female political candidates that follows in the footsteps of former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt.
Lewis was honored “for her continued contributions to the empowerment of women in the political and public arena.”
A staunch Democrat and supporter of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s campaigns, Lewis is also an advocate of Filipino-American voter registration and mobilization.
New York Democratic Sen. Charles E. Schumer said she “is one of America’s leading Filipina women.”
He added, “Fifteen years ago, when there was a desperate shortage of nurses in this country, and the ability of Filipina women to come here and be nurses was being blocked by the same kind of non-thinking approach to immigration that too many exhibit in Washington today. Loida led the charge to change. There are now thousands of Filipina nurses in America, and particularly in New York.”
In receiving the award, Lewis said: “I accept this with great honor and humility, and I am honored to represent my fellow Filipinos.”
