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‘Over 10K CWs approved by April ’16 against 12,999 cap’
The Commonwealth already exceeded by April this year the number of contract workers permits approved for the CNMI compared to the total numbers of permits approved for the entire of last fiscal year, according to CNMI-specific data from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website.
As of April 27, the CNMI has exceeded the number of CW permits approved by over 500 permits.
With a cap of 13,999 last fiscal year, the federal agency approved 9,609 applicants.
In fiscal year 2016, this number is currently at 10,141 approved permits. This is against a cap of 12,999 contract workers.
The cap was cut by 1,000 by USCIS last October and is expected to decrease every year leading up to the expiration of the program, the lifeblood of the workforce in the CNMI, in 2019.
Still, Gov. Ralph DLG Torres says he is happy they are “reaching the cap.”
With the USCIS numbers being year to date, Torres officials believe it may be possible that the CNMI will draw near if not hit the ceiling this year.
“…If we are not reaching the cap, it means we don’t need” the program, Torres told Saipan Tribune in an interview yesterday.
“If we are going to go into 2019 and ask for an extension [from the federal government] where we are not meeting” and showing the demand of workers for hotel and project investment, “it would not make sense,” he said.
Torres said if the CNMI reaches its caps, continue to decrease its unemployment rate because of the continued hiring of locals by new investors, then it shows “we are all trying” to meet federal regulations by the hard date of 2019.
“And by next year and the following year, we will know exactly our labor force,” he said, encouraging private business partners to “hire local,” calling this “mandatory.”
As for the current split of CWs in the CNMI, Torres said the increase from last year to be largely attributed to the “investment that is here” and these projects construction demands, when asked yesterday.
“…Manpower is a need,” Torres said. “We have new investments that are here. So hiring new CWs is a lot better. We are utilizing that for now versus not having” the program.
