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Local Immigration staff’s morale is down, says Grey
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Posted on Jan 27 2009
The morale of the CNMI Immigration staff is down because they are scheduled to lose their jobs by June 1 when federalization takes effect, according to the local Immigration chief.
Division of Immigration Services director Melvin Grey told Saipan Tribune that the CNMI Legislature wants to guarantee them jobs, but there is no money to back it up.
“It’s not like they are hoping, it’s like we’re out of a job on June 1st. So they are really hurting…What’s their recourse? They are U.S. citizens working in their own country and the federal government put them out of jobs,” Grey said.
The director said some of the staff resigned last December, others are now looking and lining up for jobs, and some are holding on because they have nowhere else to go.
“Others are holding on because they have taken the federal test and passed. They will just continue working until they hopefully get picked through the hiring process,” Grey said.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection had already posted job announcements for Customs and Border Protection Officer Field Operations, listing the CNMI as a duty location.
Thirty-seven CNMI Immigration employees will reportedly be automatically eliminated from consideration because of the 37-year-old age cutoff.
Grey earlier said that, because of such hiring qualification criteria, less than 20 of local immigration officers may quality.
As of last December, the CNMI had 72 Immigration employees, including three at the U.S. Passport’s Office.
The Legislature has passed a joint resolution that asked the U.S. Department Homeland Security to ensure that local Immigration employees and U.S. citizens in the CNMI be given priority when hiring in the CNMI.
