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Grey: Local officers’ careers will be wiped out
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Posted on Sep 10 2008
The federalization law will wipe out the careers of local immigration officers, according to Division of Immigration Services director Melvin Grey.
In an interview with Saipan Tribune yesterday, Grey said that Immigration officers and personnel are very concerned because of their uncertain future under the federalization law.
Immigration Services has a total of 72 officers and staff on Saipan, Rota, and Tinian.
“Some of them have as much as almost 30 years. A lot of them have around 14, 15 years. They invested in one career-specialty. And this law has wiped out their career,” Grey said.
The director said he could imagine the officers’ uncertainty, considering that there has been no promise of jobs for them under the federal setup.
These officers, Grey said, have nothing to fall back on because of the reduction of government’s workforce and lack of positions.
Grey has been serving as Immigrations director since February 2006. He said he would stick with Gov. Benigno R. Fitial as long as Fitial needs his services.
“When the federal comes in, I don’t expect any job offers for me. I will just be retiring,” he said, smiling.
In a recent presentation, Howard Willens, the governor’s special legal counsel, disclosed that under the federalization law, 132 Labor and Immigration personnel would lose their jobs.
Willens pointed out that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security requires U.S.-based training for its personnel and that no such training is available here until June 2009. The training, he said, takes nine to 12 months if DHS elects to provide it.
He said the ripple effect from this jobs loss are further out-migration from CNMI, loss of tax revenues, and loss of consumer demand.
On the loss of 52 jobs at the Department of Labor, Willens said DHS might utilize some current Labor employees, but that they have not yet considered this option in any detail. He expects higher paid federal workers to move to Saipan.
During the presentation, Willens tried to convince the Legislature to provide funding of about $400,000 in an eight-month period that he said the administration will need to pursue the litigation against the federalization law.
