ICE: No plan to establish detention center in CNMI

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement does not have plans to establish a new detention facility in the CNMI and won’t discuss whether it will increase its staffing right before or after Nov. 27 when nonresidents who fail to find an employer to petition them for a Commonwealth-only worker classification lose their status and face deportation from the islands.

Lori K. Haley, public affairs officer with ICE out of California, said ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations Division recently signed a contract to relocate its administrative offices on Saipan to a building that will better facilitate the division’s day-to-day operations, but it will not have an overnight detention area.

“Like most law enforcement facilities, the new office will have secure space for interviewing and briefly holding individuals who are taken into custody by ICE. However, it will not have overnight detention space,” she told Saipan Tribune.

Haley said anyone arrested by ICE who is going to remain in the agency’s custody for more than 12 hours will be transferred to ICE’s existing contract detention center on Saipan. That center is operated by the CNMI Department of Corrections in Susupe.

Many nonresidents in the CNMI have yet to find an employer that will petition them for a CW status.

Because of this, jobless nonresidents—including those who have been legally working in the CNMI for years but only recently lost their job because of the bad state of the economy—fear federal agencies will look for them and subject them to deportation.

Others are hoping that the so-called “Morton memo” could buy them time to find an employer even after Nov. 27.

ICE director John Morton’s memo directs ICE attorneys and employees to “exercise prosecutorial discretion” and refrain from going after non-citizens with close family ties in the U.S., among other things, unless they are criminals or pose a clear risk to national security.

Haley confirmed that the Morton memo covers the CNMI.

“The memo you’re referring to, which was issued by ICE Director John Morton in June 2010, provides guidance to ICE personnel agency-wide, including in the CNMI, about the agency’s enforcement priorities. Specifically, ICE is focused on smart, effective immigration enforcement that prioritizes efforts to target those who present a risk to public safety or national security, along with criminal aliens and egregious immigration violators,” she said.

Rene Reyes, president of Marianas Advocates for Humanitarian Affairs Ltd. or Mahal, said yesterday that nonresidents should not rely on the application of the Morton memo or on the belief that they won’t be deported when they lose their status after Nov. 27 just because they are a threat to national security.

While Reyes hopes that many of the now jobless aliens could find an employer to file a CW status for them by Nov. 27, he also hopes that those who won’t be able to do so would think twice about overstaying in the CNMI.

He said another option is applying for a parole in place for humanitarian reason, but he made it clear that this is on a case by case basis.

Bonifacio Sagana, president of Dekada Movement, separately cautioned nonresidents against relying on the Morton memo.

“Once you’re out of status, you won’t be covered by Kilili’s H.R. 1466 or any other proposal to grant improved immigration status for alien workers. You need to have legal status to be covered by HR 1466 or to be granted improved status if there’s one,” he said.

Delegate Gregorio Kilili Sablan’s HR 1466 proposes a “CNMI-only resident status” for four groups of people, including foreign parents of U.S. citizen children. But Sablan himself said it is impossible for his bill to become law by Nov. 27.

Sagana is among the seven individuals who filed a lawsuit in federal court on Thursday to stop federal officials from implementing the CW rule, describing it as “unlawful.” They asked the court to certify their lawsuit as a class action.