‘NMI labor, immigration laws will be superseded’

Certain Northern Marianas labor laws will lose their effect once the federal government takes over local immigration.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office, in its legal analysis of the federalization bill, said the proposed legislation would supersede all CNMI immigration laws, as well as some CNMI labor laws related to the entry and exit of aliens.

That includes most of provisions of Public Law 15-108, the comprehensive law setting new immigration and labor rules that took effect on Jan. 1, 2008.

One example is the CNMI’s bond requirement which, the GAO said, would presumably be preempted by any bond requirements already present in U.S. immigration law.

Commonwealth laws that apply to foreign agricultural workers would be replaced by federal requirements for the admission and treatment of H-2A workers or other related federal laws. Under federal law, employers of temporary workers in the agricultural sector must provide their workers with housing, insurance, three meals a day, and the tools and equipments to do their jobs. CNMI law requires only that employers provide medical insurance to foreign workers, and gives employers the option to provide additional benefits such as housing, food, and transportation.

The GAO, however, was unsure exactly what would happen to the CNMI’s permit program once federalization is in effect.

“Other CNMI laws that are administered as part of the CNMI’s permit program also might be affected because the CNMI’s permit program will be replaced with federal law, and it is unclear whether these CNMI programs will continue to be administered,” the GAO said.

For example, the federal agency said, a CNMI law requiring notice and orientation procedures for guest workers admitted to the CNMI, as well as laws mandating employers to provide medical insurance to employees and provide mediation procedures in the case of contract disputes, have no counterpart in the federalization bill.

The GAO said it is unknown whether these existing requirements would be administered after federalization.

The federal agency added that existing CNMI agreements with China and the Philippines could be affected by the immigration bill. But it is unclear whether the agreements would be adhered to or would be superseded.

Further, the federalization bill does not contain set requirements for hiring a certain percentage of citizens. Under current local law, employers are required to hire at least 30 percent of their employees from local residents. CNMI law also requires that employers seeking to hire foreign workers must prove that they advertised the position and were unable to find a qualified CNMI resident.

Under the federal system, no quota exists for the hiring of local residents. But federal immigration law requires that employers seeking to fill jobs with applicants for H-2B visas must demonstrate that they have been unable to identify a qualified U.S. worker for the position. Similarly, employers of H-2A applicants must certify through the Department of Labor that U.S. workers cannot be found to perform the job and that the hiring of the foreign worker will not hurt the wages and working conditions of U.S. workers doing the same job.

“However, without regulations implementing the pending legislation, it is unknown whether the CNMI-only work permit program will include requirements related to U.S. workers,” the GAO said.