Torres to USCIS: Prioritize healthcare, CUC workers

The administration of Gov. Ralph DLG Torres has asked U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to reserve 260 CNMI-Only Transitional Worker slots for healthcare and utility workers.

In a letter to U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who oversees USCIS, Torres urged the agency to prioritize these employees to ensure that operations at the Commonwealth Health Center and the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. won’t be disrupted.

Torres cited the new provision in the Northern Mariana Islands U.S. Workforce Act of 2018 where Section 3(b)(3)(B) of PL 115-218 grants the CNMI governor the ability to provide recommendations to DHS in reserving a certain number of permits each year for workers under the public health or safety employment categories.

Section 3(b)(3)(B) states the governor can recommend to DHS to “reserve a number of permits each year for occupational categories necessary to maintain public health or safety in the Commonwealth.

“With the recent signing of U.S. Public Law 115-218, we are able to supply our economy with the necessary resources to progress as a community and are now able to do so with greater tools and ability to participate in the management of our labor force and in the direction of our economy,” said Torres in his letter.

USCIS has already announced that they have started accepting CW-1 applications based on the newly available 8,001 numerical slots for fiscal year 2019. P.L. 115-218 increased the numerical limit to 13,000 from 4,999 in the previous law that was supposed to end on Dec. 31 this year had President Donald J. Trump not signed H.R. 5956 into law last month.

Torres also asked USCIS to set aside 60 slots for occupational categories related to workers providing public utilities services in the CNMI. These services include water/wastewater engineers, electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, and trades technicians.

Torres asked USCIS to reserve 200 CW-1 permit applications for occupational categories 29-0000 and 31-0000 or for healthcare practitioners; technical, and healthcare support occupations.

Torres made both requests for fiscal year 2019 as it would ensure the daily operations of the Commonwealth’s lone hospital and CUC, which provides utility services to all businesses and residents of Saipan, Tinian, and Rota. “This request is crucial toward ensuring adequate staffing of the CNMI’s healthcare system and public utilities services.”

“As you are aware, a large majority of nurse staff were denied renewal applications prior to the enactment of P.L. 115-218. The reservation of permits for these vital occupational categories will provide greater support for the maintenance of public health in the CNMI,” added Torres.

Healthcare services in the CNMI could have encountered problems after no one among the 111 nurses and ancillary staff at CHC were selected in the lottery system used by USCIS to fill the supposedly 4,999 slots. CUC could have also faced a similar problem since they have specific labor demands in regards to utilities maintenance.

“Similarly, the [CNMI’s] public utilities system, maintained by CUC, has labor demands that exceed local capacity in specific engineering and trades occupations. Maintaining sustainability in labor access for the power, water, and wastewater functions of CUC is an absolute necessity if the safety of the public were to be protected,” said Torres.

Torres said the governor’s ability to make recommendations is beneficial to the CNMI’s labor issues. “Having the ability to recommend alterations to these reservations throughout the duration of the transition period would be beneficial toward the CNMI’s goals of truly transitioning occupations toward U.S. citizens or alternative visa classifications when U.S. workers are not available.”

He is also recommending that permits should also be reserved for “critical occupations” and make it adaptable to the changing labor demands of both occupational categories.

“I am in the process of providing further recommendations for the development of the interim rule, but as petitions for [FY] 2019 are now being accepted, the reservation of these critical permits is of urgent significance tor our islands,” added Torres.