‘Bill veto needed to fund immigration’

Gov. Benigno R. Fitial will need to veto a Legislature-approved bill in order to fund the Division of Immigration through the rest of the fiscal year, according to Sen. Maria Pangelinan.

The senator said Secretary of Finance Eloy Inos asked that, instead of passing House Bill 16-129 appropriating money deposited in the Tobacco Control Fund to various agencies, the Legislature instead pass a bill appropriating $400,000 to the Division of Immigration.

However, both the House and Senate passed the bill.

The Fiscal Year 2009 budget only funded the Immigration Division through May 31, the day before Public Law 110-229 was scheduled to go into effect.

With the Department of Homeland Security pushing back the start date to Nov. 28, additional money must be allocated to fund personnel and operations for the agency.

The House Ways and Means and the Senate Fiscal Affairs committees are jointly drafting a bill to allocate the money, said Esther Fleming of the Office of Management and Budget.

The six-month delay was announced just before the administration submitted its Fiscal Year 2010 budget proposal to the Legislature on April 1, so it includes funding for the Division from Oct. 1—the start of the new fiscal year—to Nov. 28—when the federal government will take over local immigration.

“Our main problem is funding that they [the Legislature] took out from June 1 to Sept. 30,” Fleming said.

The cash-strapped Commonwealth government will be able to generate revenue for six more months in certain areas.

Six more months of the Russia and China markets could mean more than $100 million coming into the CNMI, according to the Marianas Visitors Authority. Nonresident worker fees will also be coming in for six more months, an additional $2.5 million to $3 million in revenue.

The Department of Labor, which will also be run by the federal government, was fully funded through the end of the fiscal year. The CNMI has sued the federal government in an effort to stop the takeover of local immigration and filed a preliminary injunction to halt the labor provisions in PL 110-229.

Fleming said she had talked with Immigration employees about their job status.

“I did meet with all the employees on different occasions,” she said. “I did assure them they are still be on board. We will find one way or another. They were very worried.”

Melvin Grey, director of the local Division of Immigration, earlier said staff morale was low at the agency, as employees were unsure about their future.

When the postponement of the start date was announced earlier this month, Grey said it was still business as usual at the Immigration Division.

Sixty-one employees will be able to keep their jobs for another six months, but “we’ll have to face it again in six months,” he said.