Big Korean corporation seeks DHS, USCIS help over CW crisis

Three Koreans, who have been working on Saipan for 29, 31, and 35 years, join a gathering of longtime foreign workers who greet motorists to express their gratitude to CNMI leaders who support for their improved immigration status, during a gathering along Beach Road in front of the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium in Susupe on Saturday afternoon. The workers and representatives of some businesses are also appealing to the federal government to immediately resolve the CW crisis to avoid shutdown of businesses and stop “turning apart” families. (Ferdie de la Torre)

A Korean company that operates many businesses on Tinian and Saipan, including a plantation of hot pepper on a 30-hectare land and a nursery garden with a million noni trees, is among the many businesses in the CNMI that is greatly affected by the CW crisis.

Huang Shun Corp. wrote a letter on Saturday to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to seek help as 11 of its employees, mostly long-term foreign workers, are affected with the CW1 2016 cap.

Huang Shun Corp. general manager Yuren Huang also stated in the letter that their manpower is short of 50 people in the farm alone.

“We cannot afford to lose our good employees. The CW1 crisis is hitting hard on us as well as other businesses,” Huang said.

Huang said they are seeking help from DHS and USCIS to immediately conduct a fast remedy on the CW1 crisis.

Huang Shun Corp. employs not only foreign workers but also many locals. The company began operation on Tinian in 2002, running a supermarket, hotel, restaurant, poker arcade, laundromat, farming, and wholesale store. In 2007, the corporation branched out to Saipan, operating the same businesses.

Huang Shun Corp. was among the many businesses that participated Saturday’s gathering of foreign workers of different nationalities at the Kilili pavilion in Susupe, where they waived to motorists to show their gratitude to CNMI leaders who recommended for their improved immigration status.

The group asked the federal government to act immediately in addressing the CW crisis as many longtime workers, who have U.S. citizens, were already forced to leave the CNMI with their children left behind.

The gathering was spearheaded by a group called “We Dream Us One,” which was formed a few weeks ago by Itos Torres Feliciano, Mami Ikeda, Glen Hunter, Amor Q. Zapanta, Won Jun Lee, Anna Chan, and Elitza Stoilova.

The Hotel Association of the NMI, the Saipan Chamber of Commerce, and the Northern Mariana Islands Chapter of the Society of Human Resource Management have joined the call for improved status for longtime foreign workers, revising an earlier joint resolution this month and aligning with Gov. Ralph DLG Torres’ push for improved status through ongoing “Section 902” talks with the White House.

Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP) recently stated that he will be adding a call for improved status for longtime foreign workers in the CNMI.