unless they meet federal standards.
David Gulick, district director of the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Service in Honolulu, said they are now drafting the plans to implement the federalization of the local immigration system.
Gulick and other visiting federal officials met yesterday afternoon with lawmakers.
The federal government “will try to hire current [CNMI Immigration] employees and see how they fit in — unfortunately, there may be some people who may not qualify,” said Gulick, responding to a question from Rep. Rosemond B. Santos, R-Saipan.
Gulick said the federal government “will bring in Immigration officers in temporary duty to do the job.”
He said the likely scenario is that the new immigration office here will be manned by locals and statesiders.
A visiting official with the U.S. Customs said pre-testing will be conducted to examine the qualifications of those who can work for the federal government.
Those who passed the pre-test will be required to enroll at an academy for at least 12 weeks to study federal customs and immigration laws.
The CNMI Division of Immigration is under the Attorney General’s Office and has 75 full-time employees on Saipan, 13 on Tinian and 11 on Rota.
The local customs has 69 full-time employee positions.
Under U.S. Public Law 110-229, which contains the CNMI federalization provisions, the changes in local immigration should take effect by June 2009 unless extended for another 180 days.
