Look who’s talking?

This letter is in connection with the article published in this newspaper on Oct. 27, 2011, titled “Stop giving foreign workers false hope.”

I find that the statements made by attorney Loida Nicolas-Lewis are very much the same as the information given by USCIS, attorneys Maya Kara and Jane Mack, and others on how nonresident workers can remain legal here in CNMI. Because of attorney Lewis’ statement, the CNMI administration is now reacting but I refuse to believe that this administration has concerns whether all nonresident workers are hallucinating to the max or not regarding false hopes.

As a nonresident worker here in CNMI for 16 years who religiously pays taxes, who never availed of food stamps benefits and Medicare, nor received any child tax credit for my 11-year-old U.S. citizen child, let me state my concerns and hopes for the CNMI:

– I am concerned that the CNMI voters will continue to vote blindly for the wrong people in their hopes that the promises made during the campaign will become a reality.

– I am concerned that those people who voted for “Let It Be” team still believe that the CNMI should stay the way “it is because this is how it should be.”

– I am concerned about what happened to my and other people’s belief and hope that the peanut butter factory and the shoe factory and other investors will come in to revive the ailing CNMI economy.

– I am concerned that if this system of government would continue, the youth of today would eventually decide to leave our beloved CNMI and be ashamed of where they came from.

– It is my great hope that employers will not abuse the CW regulations and that USCIS will not tolerate employers petitioning their workers for CW visa only when these workers are qualified for and therefore should be petitioned for H visa, especially those who are working in government agencies like CHC.

While I am hoping for the U.S. Congress to pass a bill for a better immigration status for all deserving legal, competent, and competitive nonresident workers, I too had once believed and had hoped that somehow the CNMI governor would have even a 0.01 percent ounce of compassion and sympathy for long-term guest workers. False hope isn’t it?

I am proud to say that I rallied several times for federalization. I asked for it and I got it! Because it is my hope and belief that the CNMI would be a better place, for the community and most importantly for our children, who have known no other place but the CNMI as their home. NO REGRETS!

No need to look far to see people giving and having false hope, they are right there in your own backyard.