A ‘human face’ for those affected by federalization

Human rights advocate Wendy Doromal, along with the United Workers Movement NMI, has initiated a letter writing campaign meant to put “human face” on foreign contract workers, immediate relatives of U.S. and Freely Associated States citizens, and others in the CNMI who will be affected by the June 1 start of transition to federal immigration.

The letter writing campaign is being launched almost simultaneously with Delegate Gregorio “Kilili” C. Sablan voicing of his concerns about the unavailability of U.S. visas for IRs of U.S. and FAS citizens during the annual meeting of island governors in Washington, D.C. headed by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. (See related story)

Doromal said the campaign will give a voice to the huge population of CNMI nonresidents who are not represented and have no vote in matters that impact their lives and the lives of their children and families.

“The officials drafting regulations are thousands of miles from the CNMI and have not met with these people directly. The letters will give them a chance to get a clearer picture of who the people affected by Public Law 110-229 are, the contributions that they make to the community, and why they call the Commonwealth home,” said Doromal in a statement.

Rabby Syed, president of the United Workers Movement CNMI, encouraged the community yesterday to join the campaign, which solicits letters from all categories of people who will be affected by federalization.

These people, according to Doromal, are guest workers, U.S. citizen children of foreign contract workers, spouses and children of citizens from FAS, alien spouses and children of U.S. citizens, CNMI permanent residents, widows and widowers of U.S. citizen spouses, and alien spouses divorced from their U.S. citizen spouses.

“Letters from supportive resident relatives, friends and employers of foreign contract workers and others among the various nonresident categories are also encouraged and welcome,” said Doromal.

The letters will be scanned and e-mailed to Doromal as they are received, and the original copies will be mailed to her.

Doromal said she will hand-deliver the letters to the secretaries of the departments of Homeland Security, State, Labor, Justice and Interior, as well as members of the U.S. House and Senate Resources Committees that are directly involved in drafting policy and regulations for P.L. 110-229 or the Consolidated Natural Resources Act.

Besides the letter writing campaign, the United Workers Movement NMI is also gathering signatures in support of waiving “green card” application fees for IRs of U.S. and FAS citizens.

The group will be organizing meetings on Saipan, Tinian, and Rota to write and collect letters.

Doromal encouraged those interested to join the campaign to visit her website, http://unheardnomore.blogspot.com, through e-mail at doromal@earthlink.net or at tel. no. (407) 823 8214 for details and suggestions on what to include in the letters. Syed can also be reached via email at rabbysayed@yahoo.com or through 285-3307.