Kilili to ask US Labor chief to ‘make public’ decision on CW program

Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP) said Friday he will ask U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez at their meeting later this month “to make public” his decision on the requested extension of the CW program that gives the CNMI access to some 10,000 foreign workers. The CW program expires on Dec. 31, 2014, unless extended.
Sablan, at the same time, said he was assured by a top U.S. Department of Homeland Security official that the existing U.S. visa waiver program for CNMI-bound Russian tourists won’t be affected as a result of the Ukraine-Russia row over the disputed Crimea region.

“I would be meeting with Labor Secretary Perez later this month. We are now asking him to make his decision public,” Sablan told Saipan Tribune at the ribbon cutting of a hydroponic greenhouse in Kagman on Friday afternoon.

Sablan believes that the U.S. Labor secretary already has a decision on the matter. Without an extension of the CW program, the CNMI loses immediate access to some 10,000 skilled and professional foreign workers, mostly from the Philippines, after Dec. 31, 2014.

This comes at a time when the CNMI is seeing improvements in its tourism-based economy, after years of lackluster performance.

While the U.S. Labor secretary has until July or 180 days before the Dec. 31 end of the CW program to decide under U.S. Public Law 110-229, the absence of a decision at least four years since the CNMI started asking for a five-year extension is a constant source of uncertainty for the local economy, its businesses, would-be investors, workers, and the government.

The delegate also said the CNMI will still enjoy the U.S. visa waiver program for Russian tourists bound for the CNMI after getting an assurance from a top DHS official.

“It’s good to know that our tourism won’t be affected by that,” he said.

The CNMI has been monitoring the situation in Ukraine’s volatile Crimea region where tension with Russia continues to escalate.

President Barack Obama issued an executive order denying U.S. visas and blocking financial transactions for Russians who are determined to have been involved in military action in Ukraine. U.S. visa restrictions and cancellations affect only travel to the United States.

Gov. Eloy S. Inos, in a separate interview Friday, said he is hopeful that any U.S. restrictions on Russia won’t affect the CNMI’s tourism.

The CNMI cannot afford to lose at this time some $130 million in annual economic revenue from Russian tourists who are allowed to enter the CNMI without U.S. visas. The same visa waiver privilege is accorded tourists from China.