Previous Story
‘No funding identified for hiring of displaced immigration agents’
|
Posted on Dec 30 2008
The vetoed budget bill for fiscal year 2009 offered government jobs to the employees that would be displaced by immigration federalization, but did not say how they would be paid.
In his recent veto message to the Legislature, Gov. Benigno R. Fitial pointed to the unfunded provision in the bill, which proposed the lateral transfer of all immigration personnel who are not employed by the federal government when the U.S. Department of Homeland Security assumes control of CNMI immigration in June 2009.
“While I support assisting our local immigration officers in security jobs, the Legislature fails to identify funds to go along with the positions,” Fitial said.
He noted that the proposed appropriations for the Division of Immigration remain only through May 2009. “In essence, to comply with the requirements of this section, the departments within the three branches of our government must first terminate, lay off, or not renew existing employees to accommodate the immigration officers that they accept as transferees. This section is extremely prejudicial to our current employees,” the governor said.
The CNMI has 72 immigration employees, including three at the U.S. Passport’s Office.
According to Immigration Director Melvin Grey, less than 10 of the local immigration officers have a chance to qualify for the federal jobs. The rest are automatically disqualified because they are over the age limit of 37 or do not meet the requirement of at least three years work experience, among other reasons.
Last week, the House of Representatives passed a resolution asking DHS to give priority to local immigration employees and U.S. citizens in the Commonwealth when hiring in the CNMI.
The U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection is currently hiring officers for its future CNMI operations. But the resolution says the requirements and procedures in place for hiring appear to be inconsistent with the mandate of the immigration law, which guarantees priority consideration to local immigration employees.
The resolution asks DHS to waive the age restriction and remove the physical testing and training requirements for current CNMI immigration employees.
