Jobless aliens obtain parole

“You never know until you try.”

This was what Nida Bautista, 55, had to say weeks after she personally carried a handwritten letter to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Garapan, asking for a grant of parole that will allow her to legally stay in the CNMI beyond Nov. 27 so that she won’t get separated from her U.S. citizen son and while she continues to look for a new job.

USCIS granted her parole status until Jan. 31, 2012.

“I was very happy when I got a letter from USCIS granting me parole. If you don’t try to ask, you won’t get any. Having two months to prepare or look for a job will help me and my son a lot,” Bautista told Saipan Tribune yesterday, showing her Form I-94.

Bautista, who legally came to Saipan in 1994 to work as a house worker and later on as a commercial cleaner, is just one of the many unemployed nonresidents who have requested and were granted parole status by USCIS in recent weeks.

A grant of parole is always discretionary, on a case-by-case basis, and is up to USCIS.

Bautista, along with other unemployed workers who obtained parole, called on other nonresidents who have legally worked in the CNMI for years but recently lost their jobs due to the bad economy to also ask for parole instead of resorting to illegal employment agreements.

“I told USCIS that my son is still a high school student, and he doesn’t want to leave the CNMI where he’s born. I also don’t want to leave him here alone,” she said.

She hopes that Delegate Gregorio Kilili Sablan’s (Ind-MP) H.R. 1466, which proposes a “CNMI-only resident status” for four groups of people, including foreign parents of U.S. citizen children, will be signed into law before her parole expires.

“Because if we become out of status, we might not get covered by Kilili’s HR 1466 when it becomes law, so we need parole status to be able to stay here legally,” she said.

Another unemployed nonresident, Feliciano Mangahas, who does not have a U.S. citizen child on Saipan, said he also asked and was granted parole until Jan. 31, 2012.

“I lost my job in 2009 but I have an umbrella permit expiring on Nov. 27. I am really hoping I will get a job soon,” the 47-year-old said.

Mangahas, who came to Saipan in 2004 to work as a farmer, said the additional two months will allow him to continue looking for a job so he could support his seven children in the Philippines.

“If I really can’t find an employer, then I will go home but at least I have two more months to look for a job,” he said.

The “notice of parole status” that accompanies the Form I-94 given to nonresidents like Mangahas reads: “Your request for an extension of your parole has been approved. Your parole is authorized until Jan. 31, 2012. If you have not received any further information regarding your immigration status by Jan. 31, 2012, please contact USCIS office…”

A 36-year-old Chinese woman, who has a 6-year-old U.S. citizen daughter, also wrote a handwritten letter to USCIS on Oct. 27 to give her more time to process her “green card.” She said she got the parole notice on Nov. 8. Just like the others, she’s paroled until Jan. 31, 2012.

“I have more time to process my green card. Hopefully everything will work out fine,” said the former garment sewer, who later worked in other legal jobs when the garment factories started closing one by one.

Aida Camacho, 65, said she asked for parole on Oct. 13, also to be allowed more time to process her “green card.”

“I was told that I need around $1,700 to have my green card. I am working on it,” she said.

Unlike the others, Camacho’s parole is valid until Oct. 29, 2013.

“But I am not going to wait for 2013 to get a green card,” she said. Camacho lost her husband of 20 years last year, even before they could process her green card.

She said she and her husband didn’t think that immigration will not undergo this change so they didn’t bother to process her green card for 20 years. Now she faces a loss of status after Nov. 27 if she doesn’t obtain her green card or does not ask for parole to allow her more time to do so.

Camacho said she came to Saipan in 1986 to work as a house worker and later on as a room attendant at the Hyatt. She now runs a small vegetable business.

Back in October, USCIS said nonresidents could not be granted parole to remain in the CNMI beyond Nov. 27 if they do not have an employer that will petition them for a Commonwealth-only worker, or CW, status, by Nov. 27.

Without a pending CW application filed by their employer by Nov. 27, they could lose status to remain in the CNMI and face deportation.

Bautista, Mangahas, and others who are in their situation said, however, that there’s no harm in asking for humanitarian parole, based on their experience.

“And there’s no money involved here. You don’t need to pay to get parole,” said Bautista.

Nonresidents interviewed yesterday said they’re also hoping that USCIS will grant “parole status for all” nonresidents until Congress grants improved status to long-term foreign workers. This is among the reasons why many foreign workers have been holding a vigil near the USCIS office in Garapan.

Less than 1,000 foreign workers of the estimated 13,399 eligible for CW status have so far been petitioned by their employers as of Nov. 10. With the Nov. 27 deadline drawing near, desperate jobless nonresidents are falling prey to illegal sponsorship deals just so they can be petitioned for a CW status and remain in the CNMI despite not having a real, paid job waiting for them.