Kilili remains optimistic about CW-1 extension

The 3,000 cut in CNMI-Only Transitional Worker slots for fiscal year 2018 was devastating news to business owners and elected leaders alike, but Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP) remains optimistic that the CW-1 program would be extended beyond 2019.

The CW-1 program, which handles the CNMI’s foreign labor workforce, is slated to end in 2019. The program has already been extended once, back in 2014.

In a news briefing last week, Sablan said he remains confident in the program being extended anew.

“The working group agrees that there needs to be an extension; that has already been agreed to. It’s not a matter of how long, but a matter of how many,” said Sablan,

He said he has been working on legislation to extend the CW-1 program. The legislation, which would most likely originate from the U.S. Senate, already has boundaries set up for discussion by a working group led by U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK). The problem Sablan sees is that the group does not include Gov. Ralph DLG Torres.

According to Sablan, he and Murkowski have reached an agreement that Torres would be included in the working group; however, the U.S. senator has yet to invite the governor to join.

“We have agreed that the Governor’s Office would be part of the working group. When that invitation is extended is not my call, but I have asked and she agreed. The chairwoman could call the governor next week, today, next year, I don’t know, but I continue to insist that the governor be part of the working group,” he said.

“The working group has set a parameter, a framework of what we can do in the bill, what we can include and not include, and it is a working progress,” said Sablan, adding that they have yet to come up with a bill.

“…But we are discussing what is possible to do in the extension: a longer term extension? How do we handle long-term workers? Do we give them a longer term visa here? Open up a whole new visa category for them and not count that toward the CW-1 visa cap? What is the visa cap? How do we reduce the cap? How do we issue increases in caps? Do we set it up for 10 years with administrative extensions for another five years? Those are things that are being hashed out right now.”

As work on the extension is ongoing, Sablan belied common perception that the U.S. Congress has no idea of what is going on in the CNMI.

He said there are congressional staffers who look at local media outlets to gather information on the CNMI.

“…We have news clippings that are of interest to the committee, whether it’s issues about the ocean, water, or the territories…and the members [of the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee] read that,” he said. “[The committee] reads our papers; they have information that they get from our paper.”