Although he admitted that the CNMI still needs foreign workers, Sablan said the CNMI business community should start looking around in terms of how many of their current foreign workers are really needed.
“I won’t say we don’t need foreign workers but let’s stop looking at the number of foreign workers,” he said.
The CNMI, for example, needs to look at how many accountants are needed in the islands, how many are here now and how many locals can fill those posts.
Sablan told businesses not to rely on the nonsense stories that locals are not qualified and cannot be relied to do the job.
“There is no truth to this. We have so many citizens who leave the island and find work in the mainland, and they get promoted in their jobs,” he said.
The issue regarding the status of alien workers in the CNMI was raised by Rotarian Dave Sablan during the club’s meeting at the Hyatt Regency on Tuesday.
He said that if all the alien workers leave the island, there will be economic chaos.
Congressman Sablan, who was the guest speaker of the Rotarians, said the CNMI needs to work with the federal government in addressing this issue.
He said the “ball” is in the hands of the federal government.
“It’s their show. We can make as much noise as we can but it’s still their show,” he added said.
He said the U.S. Department of the Interior will soon submit to the U.S. Congress its recommendations regarding the status of guest workers.
The Fitial administration believes that only a very small percentage of the estimated 16,000 foreign workers can be successfully admitted to U.S.-based employment programs when the federalization law’s transition phase ends.
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