NMI gets $333K grant for labor enforcement

The U.S. Department of the Interior has granted the Commonwealth $333,000 to enforce labor and immigration laws.

The Fitial administration announced yesterday that the CNMI government and the U.S. Department of the Interior had reached an agreement on the terms of the grant from the Initiative on Labor, Immigration, and Law Enforcement.

Under the terms of the grant, the local government will use the money to support the law enforcement efforts of the CNMI Department of Labor and the Office of the Attorney General. Specifically, the funds will be used to hire five key staff members to assist in the enforcement of labor and immigration laws.

The five positions to be funded through the initiative grant are: labor policy counsel, $88,319; counsel for civil enforcement, $74,074; counsel for immigration policy, $50,258; Division of Immigration paralegal, $50,570, and criminal prosecutor/refugee judge, 69,800.

Gov. Benigno R. Fitial welcomed the release of the grant, saying the funds will “only further the progress of the Office of the Attorney General and Labor Department.”

“I thank [U.S. Office of Insular Affairs] Director Nik Pula for supporting the CNMI’s strong law enforcement efforts by awarding us with these needed grants,” said Fitial.

The grant award is valid until Jan. 1, 2010.

The terms of the federal grant also require the CNMI government to consult with OIA officials before filling any position at the Labor Department and the AGO. The positions may only address critical labor, immigration, and law enforcement needs.

In addition, positions funded by the funds should be exempt from travel and hiring freezes, local government austerity holidays, and other cost-saving measures. If the CNMI government terminates any federally funded position or employee, it could lose the remaining funds for that position.

These same terms were the reason the administration rejected the original $420,000 labor initiative grant last year. At the time, Fitial called the grant conditions “unprecedented, unnecessary, and unproductive,” and insisted that the grant be made on the same basis that it had been in the past.

But press secretary Charles P. Reyes Jr. said yesterday the issues had been “resolved to the satisfaction of both the CNMI government and the Department of the Interior. The bottom line is, we have secured the money and it’s going to help the CNMI.”