‘Stop giving foreign workers false hope’

While the advise of former general attorney for Immigration and Naturalization Services Loida Nicolas Lewis rekindled the fading hopes of hundreds of jobless foreign workers in the CNMI, the Fitial administration was quick to put a damper on their celebration.

In an email to Saipan Tribune, press secretary Angel Demapan tried to temper the renewed optimism of foreign workers who are about to lose their status on Nov. 27, 2011, saying that workers should distinguish the underlying difference between a matter of law and a matter of personal opinion.

“While the Fitial administration opposed federalization of the CNMI’s immigration and does not necessarily agree with the final CW rule in its entirety, the fact of the matter is it happened. We all can have a speaking engagement and offer our own personal opinion. But it’s time to be realistic. Giving workers false hope is not doing them any justice at all. The best thing to do now is to be law-abiding citizens,” he said.

Demapan said that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has undertaken a major effort to reach out to employers and guest workers and that “Ms. Lewis should not add more confusion [to what] already exists.”

He said in the early stages of federalization, some people—and even some attorneys—organized all kinds of rallies for nonresidents and gave them false hope that they would get the status they dreamed of.

“And now that the final rule is out, most of those rally organizers and attorneys seemed to have ‘vanished.’ We know this because many guest workers have approached the administration to express their frustration about people giving them false hopes and misleading information. The administration knew then, as it knows now, that all those worker rallies and motorcades were just an exercise in futility, but the workers were given false hopes by certain U.S. citizens that portrayed themselves as the ‘saving grace of guest workers.’ Where are they now? They are not talking anymore. They are not standing out there with the workers that they misled,” said Demapan.

“Now, the final rule is out. The administration does not agree that foreigners should continue believing in the personal opinion of people. The most responsible thing to do is to follow the laws and policies that are in place. It’s as simple as that,” he said.

For her part, human rights advocate and former Rota teacher Wendy Doromal said the words of Lewis are encouraging.

“As the cause gains support and attention from established U.S. immigration advocates, human rights organizations, and immigrant rights groups, it will be more difficult to ignore the plight of the legal, long-term foreign workers of the CNMI. I am reaching out now to human rights and pro-immigrant groups, both large and small for support,” she said in an email to the Saipan Tribune.

Doromal added that it is important that foreign workers understand their rights and to know where they can seek legal assistance in the coming weeks and months “and I am glad that attorney Lewis is showing an interest.”

“If millions of Americans and progressive members of the U.S. Congress back a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented aliens in the U.S. what more for a mere 13,000 to 16,000 legal long-term foreign workers in the CNMI? I will continue to work for a bill to provide a permanent status with a pathway to citizenship for all of the legal, long-term foreign workers,” she said.

Lewis, chair of the U.S. Pinoys for Good Governance, and has written books on U.S. immigration law, has found an unlikely ally in Rep. Stanley M. Torres (Ind-Saipan), who agrees that jobless foreign workers should not fear deportation from the CNMI after Nov. 27, 2011, without having their case first heard by immigration court.

“That’s true. She’s accurate. She’s been an immigration lawyer. She knows the ins and outs of immigration. People would have to be notified and called in for…and asked why they should not be deported. That’s the law. That’s due process,” he said.

Rep. Ramon A. Tebuteb (R-Saipan), meanwhile, said Lewis probably made the comment to gain her some business.

“That’s a very creative way of getting clients. Maybe he or she is looking for customers. She’s saying that there will be no mass deportation but we already know that. Let’s just stick to what is applicable to the law and not give hypothetical hopes,” he said in a phone call.

He said just like when the Department of Labor issued umbrella permits in 2009, which he and Rep. Ray Yumul (Rep-Saipan) were opposed to, Lewis’ advice gives jobless alien workers false hope.

Sorensen Media Group Saipan branch manager Tina Palacios, for her part, said that jobless foreign workers and their families should be allowed to move on with their lives.

“The federal government needs to decide what do with the people. Are we going to send them home or are we going to give them an extension? Stop giving them hope and that’s all that they’re doing. They’re dangling them a carrot,” she said.

Palacios said the U.S. has its own immigration problems that they cannot even fix. “What makes them think they can come here and try to fix our immigration problem that they don’t even have any clue.”

She said the CNMI cannot be a limbo where out-of-status nonresidents will always have to look behind their backs and see if it’s okay to stay here or not.

United Workers Movement-NMI president Rabby Syed said while his group is obviously overjoyed with Lewis’ support and advice, they will still continue their 30-day vigil at the USCIS office in Garapan.

“We’re very happy. Since the beginning we’re optimistic that there will be something. We want to bring our plight to someone’s attention and she came up with ideas to help workers. We continue to have discussions on the matter and we still hope that they [jobless aliens] will be protected even after Nov. 27, 2011,” he said.

Syed added that UWM-NMI will continue to ask the Department of Homeland Security to issue parole-in-place or extend the umbrella permit deadline to give hundreds of would-be out-of-status aliens an opportunity to find jobs and “fit themselves in the system.”

He said the “Occupy USCIS” continues to be success with some 70 people participating in the 30-day vigil Tuesday night.

“The number of participants are growing each day and individuals and companies are [giving] donations. We’re asking again for people to join the rally whether they have jobs or not,” he said.

Lewis, in an interview with local radio station KWAW Magic 100.3 FM last Tuesday, said that jobless foreign workers should tell an immigration judge their “equities,” including having U.S. citizen children—especially if they are in the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, and other branches of the U.S. military.

These so-called equities also include having a U.S. citizen mother, father, spouses, sisters, brothers; having been a good member of the community and with no criminal record; not receiving welfare; have paid taxes; and have legally stayed in the CNMI for many years.