Dozens in NMI could benefit from Obama’s new immigration policy

President Barack Obama announced on Friday (Saturday, Saipan time) that the U.S. will stop the deportation of young illegal immigrants from American soil for a period of two years if they meet certain criteria and allow them to apply for work authorization, emboldening the resolve of legal long-term foreign workers in the CNMI to ask Obama and the U.S. Congress to grant them improved immigration status.

“If the president can help those who have been considered illegal, I don’t see why he can’t help those who came to the CNMI legally and have lawfully contributed to the CNMI economy for a number of years,” United Workers Movement-NMI president Rabby Syed said yesterday.

Bonifacio Sagana, president of Dekada Movement, and Rene Reyes, president of the Marianas Advocates for Humanitarian Affairs Ltd. or Mahal, echoed Syed’s sentiments.

The same worker group leaders said yesterday there’s an estimated dozens of young people in the CNMI that could benefit from the Obama administration’s latest decision.

There are also those in the CNMI who hope that they or their children will be covered in the Obama administration’s latest policy.

Erwin Santos, 22, is among them. His mother, 41-year-old Edith Locsin, said yesterday her son entered Saipan in 2009 when he was 19 years old, four years older than the age cutoff in the Obama policy. Locsin said he hopes his son will be allowed to stay with her.

“He came here legally as a tourist and his visa expired. We worked toward having him apply for another status so he could remain with me and his four other siblings, all U.S. citizens, but we were unsuccessful. He is now subject of deportation proceeding,” said Locsin, who has been lawfully working in the CNMI for 17 years.

Napolitano memo

Under the new policy contained in U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s June 15 memo, people younger than 30 who came to the United States before the age of 16, pose no criminal or security threat, and were successful students or served in the military can get a two-year deferral from deportation.

The three-page DHS memo will also allow those meeting the requirements to apply for work permits. Participants must be in the United States now and be able to prove they have been living in the country continuously for at least five years.

The change is part of DHS’ effort to target resources at illegal immigrants who pose a greater threat, such as criminals and those trying to enter the country now.

“This memorandum confers no substantive right, immigration status or pathway to citizenship. Only the Congress, acting through its legislative authority, can confer these rights. It remains for the executive branch, however, to set forth policy for the exercise of discretion within the framework of the existing law,” Napolitano said.

The memo directs U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to begin implementing this process within 60 days of the date of the memo.

The full text of Napolitano’s memo is available at http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/s1-exercising-prosecutorial-discretion-individuals-who-came-to-us-as-children.pdf.

Besides the latest memo, DHS also issued last year the so-called Morton memo that says removal cases involving those who are suspected terrorists or national security risks and those who are convicted of felony, immigration fraud, misdemeanor violation such as sexual abuse or drug trafficking, should be prioritized.

The Morton memo directs Immigration and Customs Enforcement 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.

‘Legal status’

Florida-based human rights activist Wendy Doromal said yesterday she’s working on an outreach campaign to educate members of the U.S. Congress on the history and present plight of the long-term foreign workers in the CNMI and their families.

Doromal, a former Rota teacher, said they need to emphasize these long-term workers’ legal status.

“Governor (Benigno) Fitial and other naysayers have been promoting misinformation by stating that upgraded status for the legal foreign workers would be amnesty. This is untrue. Amnesty is an anti-immigrant, right wing buzz word used to confuse and to repel support for status legislation. Amnesty is only granted to those who have broken the law. The legal, foreign workers are not lawbreakers. They are, and have been, essential contributing community members for years and decades. They are de facto citizens,” Doromal told Saipan Tribune.

The Fitial administration has yet to respond to media question on the Obama administration’s latest immigration policy.

Reyes, for his part, said Obama’s decision signals that “what the legal foreign workers are pushing for is not wrong. If the president could use his executive authority to help illegal immigrants, then how much more those who are long-term legal migrants?”

Syed believes that the two-year stay on deportation will provide an opportunity for the U.S. Congress to work on legislation that will allow those covered in the new DHS memo to be granted U.S. immigration status.

“We will continue to ask the president and the U.S. Congress to also do something to help legal long-term aliens in the CNMI be granted improved status, green card or pathway to citizenship,” he said.

‘Not amnesty’

Obama’s latest policy is aimed at making the nation’s immigration policy more fair and more efficient-by removing the threat of deportation for young people who are low enforcement priorities, the White House said.

In his remarks, Obama said over the next few months, eligible individuals who do not present a risk to national security or public safety will be able to request temporary relief from deportation proceedings and apply for work authorization.

“Now, let’s be clear-this is not amnesty, this is not immunity. This is not a path to citizenship. It’s not a permanent fix. This is a temporary stopgap measure that lets us focus our resources wisely while giving a degree of relief and hope to talented, driven, patriotic young people,” Obama said.

Doromal said while temporary fixes may provide a stop-gap solution and any action that would stop deportation is welcome, legal, long-term foreign workers in the CNMI have earned and deserve permanent residency status.

“In fact, they should have been granted such status decades ago. Only the U.S. Congress can grant status. We need to concentrate our efforts on getting decent status legislation passed that reflects the democratic principles and American values of our nation and addresses ‘all’ of the legal, foreign workers and other legal alien categories within the CNMI such as those mentioned in my draft legislation,” Doromal told Saipan Tribune.

Individuals seeking more information on the new policy should visit USCIS’s website at www.uscis.gov, ICE’s website at www.ice.gov, or DHS’ website at www.dhs.gov.

Similar to the sentiments of Syed, Sagana, and Reyes, Doromal said “if consideration can be given to undocumented aliens, then of course it must be given to legal aliens and those who have worked and lived in the CNMI for years and decades.”

“Every long-term foreign worker in the CNMI, regardless of present status, who has served the CNMI for five or more years as a legal foreign worker, and especially those who have been victims of wage theft or other abuse, must be granted permanent residency status,” she said.

Delegate Gregorio Kilili Sablan (Ind-MP) introduced HR 1466, which seeks to grant CNMI-only resident status to four groups of people, but because of political wrangling in Congress in an election year, the Republicans may remove the fourth group, mostly foreign parents of minor U.S. citizens in the CNMI.

Worker groups in the CNMI expressed disappointment with the likely removal of the fourth group from HR 1466 but at the same time said this might be the right time to expand the coverage of protection or better yet, a push for improved immigration status for all legal long-term alien workers in the CNMI.

Labor abuses

Doromal said the victims of labor and other abuses must be made whole since the CNMI and U.S. governments failed to prosecute most of the criminal-thief employers who stole wages and failed to collect millions of dollars that are owed to thousands of foreign workers.

“By receiving permanent residency status, the long-term foreign workers would be free to work and make up for the stolen wages, illegal deductions and such. Status would end the uncertainty for workers, their family members and their employers. I learned on my trip to Washington, D.C. last week that there are those in positions of power who agree and will push our agenda,” she said.

For years, Doromal has sent Obama letters, reports, and copies of testimony, as well as letters and petitions from foreign workers and their family members in the CNMI.

“I am working on a new letter and will note the humanitarian consideration given to the undocumented aliens. I will request the same consideration for all of the foreign workers presently in the CNMI. I am also sending my draft legislation and requesting the President’s support for permanent residency status,” she said.

Lastly, Doromal said the latest action from the Obama administration “will help the cause for justice and status.”

“If so many people in positions of power see the need for undocumented aliens to be accepted as part of the American family, what more for the legal, long-term foreign workers of the CNMI?” she said.

CNMI immigration came under federal control pursuant to U.S. Public Law 110-229 signed in 2008.