Rep. Diego T. Benavente, R-Saipan, chairman of the House Committee on U.S. and Foreign Relations and seven other lawmakers introduced House Joint Resolution 16-21 to request DHS to look into the pool of 68 local immigration employees.
Of the figure, 37 are automatically eliminated because of the 37-age limitation requirement.
Lawmakers want the U.S. to consider granting the CNMI a waiver on the 37-year-old age limitation; recognize the CNMI immigration personnel’s experience; and remove the physical testing and training requirements.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection already posted vacancy announcements ahead of the June 1, 2009 takeover of the islands’ borders security.
The lawmakers said the requirements and procedures in place for hiring under these job announcements did not give any priority consideration to the CNMI immigration employees.
“The GS-7 grade experience requirement is impractical as it nullifies CNMI immigration employees’ experience by only recognizing experience in enforcing U.S. Immigration or Customs,” the lawmakers said in H.J.R. 16-21 which the House adopted on Dec. 19.
“The physical testing requirements and physically rigorous training program are prejudicial to current CNMI immigration employees as these requirements are inconsistent with federal employees who do not have to pass any physical testing during their careers post academy as physical fitness training is not a requirement for retention of employment,” the resolution stated.
It added that the requirements set by the U.S. government for its employees is too high and cannot be met by the local Immigration Division employees.
“CNMI immigration employees are likely to be at a greater disadvantage to other nationwide candidates when factoring in the veteran’s preference which can increase a candidate’s score by 5 to 10 points…. It can be reasonably expected that not a single immigration employee will be hired by the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol or for any other U.S. immigration position if they are restricted to the criteria in the CBPO 09-01 job announcement, including the extended training requirements,” stated the resolution.
