She said the only grandfathering clause in the CNMI federalization law, or U.S. P.L. 110-229, deals with long-term foreign investors.
This privilege, she added, is anchored on the U.S. Constitution which protects property rights.
“There’s a principle in American constitutional law that says you cannot be deprived of your property without just compensation,” she said in an interview.
“I think the argument is like this — you’ve come here as a foreign investor and you’ve invested so many millions of dollars and so many years of your life in creating a business here. You can’t just take that away from somebody overnight. That’s the only grandfathering clause that we have. There is no protective property right for contract workers,” she added.
In its report, Malcom D. McPhee & Associates and Dick Conway said there are 1,276 businesses in the commonwealth.
CNMI lawmakers have admitted that most of the islands’ current foreign investors will not qualify under U.S. immigrant or nonimmigrant investor categories.
Kara and her husband, immigration attorney Bruce Mailman, are accepting group invitations to talk about the federalization law free of charge.
A former attorney general of the CNMI and legal adviser to the governor, the lt. governor and the House of Representatives, Kara said she herself came to the U.S. from Hungary as a political refugee when she was 12 and worked odd jobs until she became a lawyer.
“Issues involving labor and foreign workers have always interested me as a lawyer and as a human being,” she said. “I have two adopted Filipino children so this issue is all very close to who I am.”
Mailman & Kara LLC can be reached at 233-0081 or you can also visit www.lexmarianas.com.
