‘Obama action could be good for CNMI’

President Barack Obama announced Monday that U.S. Congress will not overhaul immigration laws this year and he will therefore use executive actions on immigration matters, which Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP) said yesterday could include the CNMI. But as far as national immigration reform bills are concerned, prospects for any passage this year are “dim,” Sablan said.

Meanwhile, a standalone bill extending the E-2C visa program, extending the asylum bar, and extending the H visa cap for the CNMI and Guam got the approval of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee chairman, Sablan added.

Sablan’s HR 4296 already passed the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee by unanimous consent, and an omnibus territories bill that contains a language similar to HR 4296 already passed the full U.S. Senate, so one way or another, the CNMI language is expected to pass.

Obama said he will pursue executive actions by the end of summer to “fix as much of our immigration system as we can.”

“If Congress will not do their job, at least we can do ours,” he said Monday.

“I understand President Obama had a conversation with Speaker [John] Boehner that there will be no vote on immigration reform bill this year. The President has always said he will take executive actions; probably not a one-time announcement but a series of announcements. …The CNMI is part of the federal immigration system,” Sablan told Saipan Tribune yesterday.

S. 744 and HR 15, two comprehensive immigration reform bills pending in Congress, have CNMI-specific provisions, specifically granting legal, long-term foreign residents in the CNMI a chance to apply for a “green card.”

Meanwhile, Sablan said in his address before a joint session of the CNMI House and Senate on Monday that his goal of making immigration less difficult will continue.

He mentioned that legislation he drafted to extend the bar on asylum, which is important for the CNMI’s Chinese tourism, already passed the Senate.

“The House Natural Resources Committee approved it and—let me announce today—it has been okayed by the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. My goal is to get that bill enacted this year,” he said.

He again said that his proposal contained in national immigration reform bills is still pending, “though the prospects for a comprehensive immigration bill this year are dim.”

Nevertheless, he pointed out that his proposal creates a new, CNMI-only status so certain groups of people may continue to live and work on the islands, like what the CNMI Senate recommended in 2011.

“These are people allowed into the Commonwealth under Commonwealth law, who always stayed legal and if they want to change status after five years, then, just as [CNMI] House Resolution 18-34 demands—and I quote—they ‘must go through the established process, pursuant to the Immigration and Nationality Act’. No special treatment, no fast-tracking. Exactly what this Legislature says it wants. That proposal remains my goal,” he added.