“There is no provision in Public Law 110-229 providing green cards to guest workers,” said Allen Stayman, senior aide to committee chairman and the principal sponsor of the new law, Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M.
Stayman, who is also the senior-staff member in-charge of insular affairs, provided Variety a copy of Senate Report 110-324 titled “NMI Covenant Implementation Act,” which contains a detailed section-by-section analysis of the federalization law.
The 35-page report analyses H.R. 3079, the Northern Marianas Immigration, Security and Labor Act, the basis of the NMI federalization law which was amended to remove the provision granting long-term guest workers nonimmigrant status.
Although that provision was removed a subsection in the federalization law “would require the administration, in consultation with the CNMI, to report to Congress no later than the second year after enactment on the population of aliens, status of aliens under federal law, future requirements of the CNMI for an alien workforce, and recommendations on whether Congress should consider permitting such workers long-term status under the Immigration and Nationality Act.”
A group of guest workers is gathering signatures to petition the U.S. Congress to grant long-term guest workers improved immigration status.
When the transition period for the islands’ federalized immigration system begins next year, a federally administered “Commonwealth Only Transitional Workers Program” will be introduced.
“It is most unlikely that the CNMI will be able to meet the labor needs and forego the transitional workers program in five years. It is expected that there will be at least one, and probably more than one five-year extension,” the report stated.
Foreign investors doing business in the commonwealth will be considered “nonimmigrant treaty traders” and will be allowed to stay on the islands subject to certain conditions.
The U.S. Congress investigative arm, the General Accountability Office, is required to reclassify the foreign investors during the “post-transition period.”
Apart from the transitional workers program, Homeland Security will also introduce the H-visa program in the CNMI and Guam to augment their anticipated labor shortage.
A Guam/CNMI visa waiver program will also be introduced for tourism and business purposes.
Homeland Security, in consultation with other concerned agencies, are required to come up with specific regulations that will govern the changes in the CNMI’s immigration system.
These regulations must be published in the Federal Register.
The CNMI hosts some 19,000 guest workers, mostly from the Philippines and China.
