Five ex-garment workers tracked down

The Division of Immigration will have five less persons to track down, after one of the 159 former garment workers who remain unlawfully in the CNMI after the settlement of their class action suit at the U.S. District Court stepped forward for voluntary repatriation. The four others were found to have pending cases at the Department of Labor hearing office.

Immigration director Antonio Sablan described the one garment worker who surrendered before the July 15 deadline as a female Chinese national.

“She is the smart one. We are now processing her for voluntary repatriation. We’re making sure that her travel documents are in order, and that repatriation funding is available for her,” he said.

The four others, he added, have filed cases with the Labor hearing office after their applications to transfer to new employers were denied.

The Attorney General’s Office, he added, has already processed arrest warrants against the 154 other persons on the list.

But Sablan stressed that the immigration division “is not treating this as a manhunt.”

“It is just something that we are directing some of our efforts to, but it’s basically the same as what we do on a daily basis. It’s just that we’re obligated under law to do this,” he said.

He added that due process will be guaranteed for all the former garment workers who will be caught and arrested.

Although the initial count released by the AGO as to deportable members of the garment class action suit was 440, attorney general Pam Brown later said that an extensive double check reduced the actual number to only 159. She said some of the workers have gained lawful immigration status.

The remaining unaccounted for workers face arrest and deportation proceedings in court, warned Brown, who said that illegal aliens cost the government assets and revenues that are utilized to apprehend and deport them. She stressed, however, that the workers would be accorded due process.

Brown also emphasized that she has the discretion whether or not to grant reprieve to workers who would still voluntarily turn themselves in to authorities instead of being arrested.

The wanted aliens failed to obtain valid immigration status despite numerous opportunities provided them by the Labor Department, the AGO said.