Fitial: NMI illegals now over 9,000

Gov. Benigno R. Fitial said the number of illegal foreigners and so-called overstayers in the CNMI has grown from some 3,000 to over 9,000, adding that he has reiterated his request with the federal government to give him the authority to deport these people.

“I told them that if you cannot deport overstayers, give me the authority to do so because I am very good in deporting overstayers,” he said in an interview on Saturday.

The governor, who returned last week from a three-week trip to Washington, D.C. and California, said the over 9,000 illegal aliens and overstayers include those involved in the underground economy, are illegally employed, or jobless and therefore not paying taxes and not contributing to the economy.

He also considers as illegal or overstayers those who could not find an employer to petition them for a Commonwealth-only worker or CW status, and ended up applying for parole with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

“I don’t understand what humanitarian parole is. My humanitarian issue here is my people who are not working because we have an underground economy going on because of too many legal overstayers,” he added. “Everybody who is not contributing to the community should not be here. In other words, get out. I cannot be more clear than that.”

Fitial said he has brought the issue of the need to deport these people and this time the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is “very receptive” and is now working with the CNMI.

“We need to remove all these overstayers because they are not contributing to this community,” he said, adding that when the Department of Homeland Security found out that the CNMI government was planning to sue over the one-year parole that USCIS has been starting to grant, “they requested that we talk. So talk is continuing.”

Rene Reyes, founding president of the Marianas Advocates for Humanitarian Affairs Ltd., said yesterday that only immigration courts can determine who is legal and illegal in the CNMI.

Reyes said those who applied for parole with USCIS should not be considered illegal “because they are going through a legal process” that is available to them.

Moreover, he said USCIS has not even granted decisions on most of these parole applications.

“It’s not the fault of these people that their applications have not been decided yet. I believe USCIS is prioritizing the processing of CW applications but will soon be moving on to parole applications. In fact, they have started issuing parole expiring on Dec. 31, 2012,” he added.

The leader of the workers’ group also said the fact that foreigners are applying for parole shows that they still want to contribute to the local economy. Most people granted parole could apply for an authorization for employment document so that they could legally work in the CNMI.