‘Federalization will affect us all’

Federalization is a reality and the deadline is coming like a rushing train, two lawyers told members of the Saipan Chamber of Commerce at the group’s monthly meeting yesterday.

The business members, as well as students taking part in the Chamber’s student career exploration day, listened as Bruce Mailman and Maya Kara gave a presentation explaining the implementation and regulations facing the CNMI with Public Law 110-229.

Kara said it is now time to prepare for the effects of the new law.

“We’re all going to be affected,” she said. “Employers are going to be affected because of their employees’ status changing and employees are going to be affected for the same reason.”

Families will be affected, she added.

“There are many, many vulnerable categories that will be adversely affected by this new federal law,” Kara said.

The new law will extend U.S. borders to include the CNMI. With the extension, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will be in charge of inspection and admission of aliens into the CNMI; deportation and removal of aliens from the CNMI; granting immigration benefits; administering U.S. protection law; operating air and sea ports of entry and establishing departure controls, according to the lawyers.

The transition period begins June 1, 2009, although it can be delayed by up to 180 days. The transition period will last until Dec. 31, 2014, with the possibility of a five-year extension, Kara said.

“Whether or not we get another transition period or two or three depends on politics, purely on politics and economy — who’s in the White House, who’s in Capital Hill on Saipan, what the economy is like, what the immigration issue involves in the United States,” she said. “All these will have an impact on whether or not, toward the end of the five-year period, we will be granted an additional period of five years. I don’t think our economy will sufficiently change so we will not have a need for foreign workers by Dec. 31, 2014.”

Mailman and Kara detailed the critical provisions in the public law, such as the creation of a Guam-CNMI visa waiver program; no cap on H-1 and H-2 visas to Guam or the CNMI during the transition period; and aliens admitted under any CNMI visa category may stay in the CNMI after June1, 2009, until expiration of the visa, for a maximum of two years.

New proposed CNMI immigration regulations will allow for two-year visas for: foreign national workers; immediate relatives of U.S. citizens and permanent residents; foreign students; foreign investors; and CNMI permanent residents.

The new regulations do not address extensions of existing entry permits; longer permits for FAS IRs, CNMI Permanent Residents’ IRs, or aliens’ IRs — these categories are still limited to one-year entry permits; and widows and widowers of U.S. citizens and permanent residents.