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Labor clears five names on ‘overstayers list’
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Posted on Dec 02 2008
As of yesterday afternoon, the Department of Labor has already cleared at least five persons on its list containing 624 names of allegedly overstaying alien workers in the CNMI.
Saipan Tribune learned from a Labor staff that four persons were taken off the list after they were able to produce documents to prove their immigration status.
The staff said that Roderick A. Alegre was among the five names removed from the list. Alegre, once a member of CNMI Men’s National Team, died of heart failure during a basketball game at Ada Gym on Feb. 13, 2008.
The overstayers report was published Monday.
The staff said four other persons called Labor to deny they are overstayers and that they have already looked into the records of the four callers.
When asked about the names of the four, Labor Director’s executive secretary, Evelyn Sablan, referred Saipan Tribune to Labor Deputy Secretary Cinta Kaipat. Kaipat, however, was not available as she was in a meeting with another Labor official.
Last May, Kaipat told the Legislature that Labor has put up new procedures to easily identify overstaying alien workers in the CNMI.
Kaipat said that, as part of Labor’s new operating procedures, they have established procedures for creating an “overstayer list” out of Labor’s administrative actions each quarter.
Kaipat said the first of such list was published in a newspaper last May 12.
She said the list was published to give persons on the list an opportunity to appear at Labor and correct any error that may have been made.
The “overstayers list” published Monday contained the names of 624 alien workers, mostly Filipinos and Chinese.
In the Labor’s notice, people on the list have been advised to depart the CNMI immediately.
“Persons who depart the Commonwealth voluntarily are eligible to return; those who are deported are not eligible to return,” Labor said.
Workers whose names are on the list but have a valid immigration status that allows them to be in the CNMI are urged to report to Labor Director’s executive secretary, Evelyn Sablan, before Dec. 29, 2008 to correct the records.
Labor is expected to publish again the overstayers list on Dec. 8, 2008.
