Acting Labor Secretary Cinta Kaipat said the meetings also touched on the CNMI’s request to have its labor department designated as a state workforce agency to further widen its goal of finding employment for U.S. citizens.
Kaipat said the law that federalized the islands’ immigration system “has created an extraordinary amount of extra work for the department” and it is apparent that federal agencies are not well coordinated with one another.
She noted that the federal agencies “know relatively little about the CNMI and have difficulty in adjusting their large-scale mainland operations to the very small scale of the commonwealth.”
She said “access to federal agency officials who can make decisions is very difficult and expensive from the commonwealth, and federal responsiveness to commonwealth concerns often lags.”
But she expressed hope that this year, there would be more efficient cooperative efforts between the local and federal governments.
According to the 2010 Annual Labor Secretary’s Report submitted to the Legislature, the CNMI Labor Department held three major meetings with U.S. Labor staffers in the nation’s capital to discuss policy issues which include prevailing wage determinations, unemployment insurance, extension of the transition period, designation of the CNMI Labor Department as a state workforce agency, collection of data for the CNMI, assistance on projects to further employment of U.S. citizens, and other matters.
On the issue of the prevailing wage rates, CNMI Labor said this project has been stalled due to problems with funding.
CNMI Labor separately held meetings with Homeland Security officials to discuss matters about illegal aliens and removing them from the islands.
Also discussed was the possibility of extending the ban on asylum in the CNMI. Under the federalization law, the asylum law will not be in effect here until after three years from 2009.
“During 2010, the department conducted four major meetings with DHS staff in Washington on issues such as delivery of information on illegal aliens to ICE, hiring of U.S. citizens by CBP, failure to deport illegal aliens, extending the ban on asylum in the CNMI, possible amendments to P.L. 110-229, and similar matters,” said Kaipat.
Separate meetings were also held with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services with regards to alien workers.
The CNMI-issued umbrella permits to foreign workers, students, investors and their dependents are set to expire on Nov. 27, 2011.
