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Federalization’s impact on work force topic at Chamber meeting
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Posted on Dec 01 2008
The Saipan Chamber of Commerce will be holding its general membership meeting tomorrow, Dec. 3, at the Saipan World Resort, during which special guest speakers will talk about the impact of federalization of immigration on the CNMI work force.
This meeting coincides with the Chamber’s Student Career Exploration Day, which provides an opportunity for today’s employers to meet tomorrow’s employees and help them explore what opportunities may exist, aside from joining the government payroll or moving off island. This year, the Chamber has 79 students and 42 Chamber member organizations participating.
The meeting’s guest speakers will be Bruce Mailman and Maya Kara of the Mailman & Kara law firm. The two will share with Chamber members strategies to allow employers to maximize their ability to retain foreign national workers after June 1, 2009.
There are various categories of non-U.S. citizens who are currently legally living and working in the CNMI who will be out of status come June 1, 2009. The loss of these persons will have a severely negative impact on the workforce and the community.
Some of the categories of persons whose legal status will be wiped out by the implementation of federalization are:
-Immediate relatives of U.S. citizens;
-Immediate relatives of permanent residents;
-Immediate relatives of FAS citizens,:
-CNMI permanent residents, widows and widowers of U.S. citizens and permanent residents; and
-Immediate relatives of citizens of American Samoa.
Members of some of these categories may be eligible for U.S. permanent residency (“green card”) and some will not. Because by U.S. mainland standards the number of persons in each of these categories may be small, it is uncertain that the federal authorities will provide for them in the upcoming regulations that will implement the law.
Registration and lunch will begin at 11:30am, and the meeting will begin at noon. The meeting is $15 for members, $20 for guests of members, and $25 for general public.[B][I] (SCC) [/I][/B]
