Petition for residency

This letter is addressed to the attention of the individual representing those overseas contract workers petitioning to be granted residency after having resided in the Commonwealth for 10 years or longer. Initially, let me state to this individual that utilizing the rational “humane” as the basis for your group’s petition to be granted permanent residency is about the most ridiculous motive behind your pursuance. Furthermore, to state that your group desires to be afforded the same benefits as local residents is but an insult to both Chamorros and Carolinians alike. Do you not realize that 99.9 percent of the provisions within both the Nonresident Workers Act and the Alien Rules and Regulations provides protection and benefits for overseas contract workers, and that only Section 4413 of the Nonresident Workers Act actually protects local residents, including Section II of the Alien Rules and Regulations? Other than this, there are no protected or mandated benefits for our local residents. Let me further clarify my point so your ignorance can be better calibrated to reality.

1. While overseas contract workers enjoy the benefit as mandated by local labor law to be covered 100 percent medically by their employer, including payment for prescription drugs, local residents on the other hand do not have such protection nor benefit mandated by the same law.

2. While overseas contract workers enjoy the benefit of being provided with housing and transportation accommodation by their employers, local residents do not have this benefit being mandated by local labor law either. A vast majority of local residents do rent housing but their rental payments comes directly out of their hard earned income and not subsidized by their employer.

3. While a certain percentage of overseas workers are enjoying the benefit of being afforded monetary housing allowance in addition to their regular salaries; local residents do not have such luxury.

4. While resident employees can avail of federally funded food stamp to subsidize their meager income so as to cushion the hardship of supporting their family and paying bills, a certain percentage of overseas contract workers are also availing of such benefit.

Therefore, where do you go off having to state that your group should be afforded the same equal treatment and benefits compatible to local residents? Being afforded the privilege of entering the Commonwealth for employment purposes does not give you or your group any right to demand permanent residency. The Commonwealth Constitution is very clear and specific that non-U.S. nationals have and are afforded the privilege by the government of the Northern Mariana Islands to enter the Commonwealth for the purpose of employment services to subsidize the Commonwealth’s lack of local labor workforce. Nowhere within our local Constitutional provisions does it state nor provide that you and your group’s entry into the Commonwealth is a right for you or any non-U.S. nationals to be subsequently granted permanent residency merely because you have been working and residing in the Commonwealth for a certain period of time. What is true is that non-U.S. nationals can become permanent residents either by being born within the Commonwealth, marriage to a U.S. citizen, or being petitioned to become a permanent resident if under the age of 21, predicated on either parents being a U.S. citizen, etc.

As a matter of fact, several of you who fortunately stayed in the Commonwealth 10 years or more were kept here merely through what is known as “Protection through Connection” by certain employers who for one reason or another, found a way to get around the local labor loopholes during such period. What the Commonwealth government should do instead is clamp down on certain nonresident in the Commonwealth who are in fact conducting illegal business within the CNMI so as to further subsidize their regular income. One such illegal business that is currently taking place is the renting of a residential home by certain nonresident workers, who are subsequently making additional tax-free income by renting individual rooms out to other nonresident workers without having to obtain a legal business license. Revenue and Tax, including the AG’s office, should seek these people out and if identified, they should be deported immediately without question. Yet you and your group want to claim your petition on the basis of “humane.”

Local residents need to demand of our elected leaders, especially in this upcoming election year, to introduce drastic measures that would unquestionably protect our local residents and our Commonwealth’s interest from becoming what our neighbors in Guam have experienced wherein local policies are now dictated by outside influence. And contrary to what others might perceive with regards to this letter. I am not stating that we should not welcome foreign nationals into our Commonwealth, because the majority of foreign workers working and living in the Commonwealth are very good and decent people. Their vast contribution to our economic development has, is, and will always be greatly appreciated. But it’s only a certain percentage of these people—like the individual who is heading the petitioning group in demanding through a petition that they be granted permanent residency, merely because they have been in the Commonwealth for 10 years—that really insults the intelligence of local residents. Especially when they claim or insinuate that they need to be afforded the same benefits as local residents when they know darn well that they are already being provided well above and beyond what local residents are receiving. Even those overseas workers who are employed by the CNMI government agencies are better off that their local counterparts in many ways.

Bottom line is this. The issue with the stateless demand for U.S. and local assistance is one subject matter that may or may not be viable. But this petitioning group should be placed on ships and sent back to their country of origin without question, because they are just making other good and decent nonresidents who are trying to make a decent living in the Commonwealth look bad in the eyes of the local community.

Jack T. Quitugua
Garapan, Saipan