USCIS remits $1.6M to NMI govt

Many of the over 11,000 foreign workers with pending Commonwealth-only worker status applications have yet to get their CW permits but some $1.6 million in “education funding fee” that employers paid have now been remitted to the CNMI government.

The education funding fee is $150 per foreign worker petitioned for a CW status.

Lt. Gov. Eloy S. Inos, in an interview yesterday, said they have already received a total of some $1.6 million from USCIS. This amount covers the $150 education funding fee payments for some 10,666 foreign workers since early October 2011.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said there were 11,019 CW petitioned filed as of Dec. 9. Education funding fee from this figure is over $1.652 million, although there were still hundreds of CW petitions filed after that date.

The money collected from the CW petition filing is supposed to be used by the CNMI to train U.S. workers who will fill the void left by foreign workers who left or will leave the Commonwealth. Most private sector jobs are held by foreign workers, while government jobs are mostly held by U.S. workers.

“I hope the CNMI government will really use the money for its intended purpose-to train our children and residents to become effective members of the workforce,” Saipan Chamber of Commerce president Douglas Brennan told Saipan Tribune.

Brennan also said public schools need the government’s increased focus these days. He cited as an example a new Public School System policy wherein schools, such as Marianas High School, are required to turn on their air conditioners only at 10am onwards to limit energy use.

The Fitial administration earlier said the CW education funding fee will go to PSS and Northern Marianas College to help with their vocational education and training programs and boost the local labor pool as required by U.S. Public Law 110-229, the law that placed CNMI immigration under federal control.

The CNMI’s fiscal year 2012 budget requires at least $500,000 of the CW education funding fee to go to PSS.

Rep. Ray Yumul (R-Saipan) said yesterday that he “prays” the funds will be used to help prepare local students and residents replace alien workers in the CNMI.

“The funds are federal monies so they are auditable by them,” he added. Yumul introduced a bill that would help direct where and how the money from the CW education funding fee should be divided. This is on top of the requirements of the fiscal year 2012 budget law.

Meanwhile, USCIS was not able to meet a Jan. 31, 2012, deadline to adjudicate all CW petitions filed on or before Nov. 28, 2011. As a result, most foreign workers are still uncertain whether they could continue working legally in the CNMI as they hope for pending the results of USCIS’ decision on the CW applications.