“It is federalization that is responsible for the displaced employees of Immigration,” he added.
While he lauded the federal government for delaying by 180 days the implementation of the federalization law, he also asked Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to consider the plight of local immigration personnel.
“We want to request them to address the issue of [our] Immigration employees and make sure they are taken care of,” he told Variety, adding that the federal government should not just leave CNMI Immigration personnel in a state of uncertainty.
Torres, R-Saipan, also expressed concern about the employees who passed the qualifying examination, but may no longer meet the age limit on Nov. 28, the new fate of the law’s implementation.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection of DHS has a 37-year-old age cutoff.
Torres said he will ask DHS to waive some of its requirement so that all CNMI immigration employees can be “absorbed” by U.S. Immigration.
CNMI Immigration Division Director Melvin Grey earlier said that local Immigration officers had compete for federal jobs.
Grey said of the 68 CNMI immigration employees, 37 were automatically eliminated due to the age requirement. Only 28 were qualified to take the examination.
In his previous letter asking for a 180-day extension, Torres asked Napolitano to consider some concerns of the CNMI government regarding the visa waiver program, which will exclude Russia and China.
Torres said the proposed interim rules do not meet or satisfy the purposes of the federalization law, or U.S.P.L. 110-229, and failed to establish a flexible approach to achieve border control, national and homeland security.
Torres, who chairs the House committee on Health, Education and Welfare, said China and Russia could still be included in the visa waiver program without compromising border control as well as national and homeland security.
This week, Torres said he will write Napolitano again about the concern of local Immigration employees.
He said he will also urge DHS to come up with the regulations for the federalization law.
“We still don’t know any guidelines or even a draft of any policy,” he added.
Torres said the federal government should get input from the CNMI to determine the needs of the local people.
