CW parents with expiring permits face tough choices

Attorney Mark Hanson fields questions from concerned contract workers during an informal question-and-answer forum organized at the Garapan Roundhouse yesterday. (Dennis B. Chan)

Jasmine Kang, 9 years old, has two parents on expiring contract worker permits that, given existing federal procedure amid a contract worker cap that has been reached this year, will have to leave island within the next three months with a return to island uncertain.

Kang joins an unknown number of children whose parents have permits expiring before Sep. 30, 2016, will be forced to leave the Commonwealth, after the federal government announced last month that it had reached the its cap of 12,999 CW permits for foreign workers and that no more applications would be accepted for fiscal year 2016.

Asked how she felt about her parents leaving, Jasmine said she was “sad.” “I like Saipan,” she also said.

Jasmine’s father, Zhao Fu Kang, runs an air-conditioning and electric repairs center and has been on island for 24 years. His contract worker permit expires on Sept. 16.

“I am already 60 years old. [My] baby is only 9 years old,” he told Saipan Tribune yesterday after an informal question-and-answer forum was held at the Garapan Roundhouse between local attorneys and workers. “According to the law, we have to go. But for the kids what are we going to do?”

Zhao also says his wife, who works with him as a technician, also has a permit that expires on the same day as his.

Asked who would be taking care of his child if Zhao and his wife left the NMI, “I don’t know.”

“I don’t like [the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to] take [care of] my kids,” said another parent, Chen Fang, who has been on island for almost 20 years.

Fang’s application will expire in July and her husband’s, a Filipino, will expire in August.

They also have two kids in elementary school who risk losing their parents for an indefinite period, as businesses and workers compete for shrinking cap space next fiscal year 2017. The federal government reduced the cap by 1,000 for last year.

“I stay here already 17 years,” said Fang. “My husband already almost 20 years.”

“I asked my daughter, ‘do you want to go China, do you want to go to Philippines?” and she said, “No, I like Saipan. I like to study Saipan.” Chen Fang says her daughters are aged 7 and 9. Fang and her husband work at Eucon International School.

Through a translator, some of the workers at the forum yesterday described their situation as “tough,” “unfair and “depressing” and “upsetting.”

Attorney Mark Hanson, one of the lawyers that fielded questions yesterday, sought to clarify some notions about possible “humanitarian parole” for affected workers.

He said humanitarian parole would not apply to people after January 2012.

Hanson says workers would not be able to qualify for humanitarian parole that others got that had umbrella permits, or employment authorization document in 2012.

“One of the things that I am hoping that the governor and our congressman do, and they probably are,” Hanson said, “is trying to have Homeland Security provide some sort of relief for the people who have U.S. citizen children here.

Because you guys already know, President Obama’s already said that we shouldn’t try to remove people that have [U.S. citizen children], but it doesn’t help their employment status. They are still going to be overstayers. They’re still going to have a problem with employment, they are not going to be able to fall back into the CW-1 program. But maybe they can get Homeland Security to agree to expand the humanitarian parole program to the new people that get capped out that have U.S. citizen children here. Maybe.

That’s the only special category that I can see out of all of this…Everybody else that’s been here 30 years, and you’re children are already gone to the states or not—it doesn’t matter how long you’ve been here—you are going to have to go back if you are capped out,” Hanson said.

Some workers complained yesterday of an alleged late notice with renewal deadlines.

Selinda Chen and her husband, Yang, said nobody gave them a message that they needed to renew six months before their expiration.

“We don’t know that. Before, every year it is three months before renewal but nobody told us” this year about the six month deadline, said Selinda Chen, who has been on Saipan for 11 years.

Selinda and Yang have two kids—boys aged 2 years and 4.

“Even when we go China for vacation, my baby always say, ‘Saipan is my city,’” said Selinda Chan.

“We have the car, every month we put [money in] bank, we have contract written for a leased house—everybody [here has] business here,” said Yang, whose permit expires in Sept. 23

“I deliver hand-made souvenirs. Very busy. Very good business,” he told Saipan Tribune. Yang says he’s been here for 12 years already.

Two big misconceptions

Hanson noted two big misconceptions that workers may have amid the ongoing issue.

One, he said is it does not matter how long one has lived on island, because, unfortunately, the “queue was the queue.” He was speaking about USCIS’ processing of permits.

“Everybody got in line and there was no priority given to any of them. There is no real way to work a priority system like that. It just had to be first-come, first-serve.

“But the other big misconception,” he added, “is that there’s some sort of “right” to stay here if one has U.S. citizen children. And there’s just not under the CW program, the transitional worker program.”

“They might be able to avail of themselves of some relief from deportation but that’s not a good situation. So it’s better just solidify the CW status.

Noting that there some in the unfortunate position with kids and expiring permits at different months, he asked, “What do they do? They are in a hard situation. Both of them have to go and split up the family. So in those situations one of them is going to have to leave and one of them is going to have to make some hard decisions of what is right.”

“But they can come back,” he added. “Everybody can come back. Just not until 10 days before Oct. 1.”

Hanson urges that workers should be applying “now and now and whenever they can to get in the cue.

“Because as soon as these big companies out there that are going to be hiring a thousand workers at time, and if 10 of them do it, we are going to be capped out again.”

It’s believed that new developers have taken a large chunk of the CW cap, mostly for new permits for their construction permits, beating long-time employees for permit space.

Hanson also said, small employers especially have to be diligent in advertising available positions held by the contract workers and getting in queue as soon as they can within 180 days of the permits’ expiration.

“Get in as soon as you can and make sure everything is correct in the petition so that all the advertising is done properly and the certifications is done…if you get it all in time, you shouldn’t have a problem with the 2017 cap,” he said.

Leeway

Hanson also suggested that those with permits expiring in mid-September might not have to leave island.

He explained that workers’ legal stay lasts 10 days after their permit expires. But that their stay also starts 10 days before their new permit.

“So there is a 20-day legal stay gap before Oct. 1,” he said.

“So people who are expiring, say Sept. 11, 12, or 13, can stay 10 days longer, and if they have an already approved Oct. 1. start petition—they can stay 10 days before that. So they overlap, they meet. Which means there is effectively a 20-day window where people that expire in that 20 days might not have to go back to their home country…They might be able to process here,” added Hanson.

He suggested that these workers write a well-worded cover letter to USCIS that explains the “timing” of their situation so they would not have to leave.

“…They might be able to processes without going home. And that’s the big thing for some employers…the cost of sending everybody back for a couple of weeks and bringing them back again would be a lot.”