Doromal welcomes extension of parole for kin of US citizens

Human right activist and former Rota educator Wendy Doromal applauds U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ decision to extend parole for immediate relatives of U.S. citizens and certain “stateless” individuals until Dec. 31, 2016.

“Foreign relatives with minor U.S. children and others are welcoming the news. Many of the foreigners who qualify for parole have lived in the CNMI for decades, previously as foreign contract workers under the former CNMI immigration program. Those with U.S. citizen children in public schools are relieved that they will not have to uproot their children to return to their homelands where there are no job prospects and less educational opportunities for their children,” she said in her blog, Unheard No More!

Doromal disclosed, however, that the Commonwealth’s nonresident investors are getting antsy about the status of the EC-2 Visa Program.

“Nonresident investors in the CNMI are anxious to learn if the non-functioning U.S. Congress can get their act together long enough to pass legislation that would extend the E-2C visa program until 2019. The program is set to expire on Jan. 1, 2015.”

Many of these nonresident investors come from China, the Philippines, Korea, and other Asian countries years and even decades ago, to invest in small businesses in the CNMI.

“They opened upholstery shops, auto repair shops, beauty parlors, laundries, tailors, groceries, and other small to medium-sized businesses. They have paid taxes, employed thousands, and boosted the CNMI economy. Without an extension of the program, over 250 CNMI nonresident business owners and their family members will be out of status within two months. The majority of these people left their homelands decades ago to start a new life in the CNMI, many investing their life’s savings.”

Doromal lamented that these nonresident business owners, who were lured to the CNMI and made the islands their home and contributed so much for years and decades, do not qualify for green cards even though some of them estimate that over the years they have invested even more than $500,000 in the CNMI.

Under the EB-5 Program, foreign investors would have to be a new business and plunk down $500,000 to qualify.

“Unless a bill that would extend the E-2C visa program passes and is signed into law or the CNMI’s legal, long term nonresident business owners are granted permanent residency by Jan. 1, 2015, hundreds of small businesses would close. Many will be left jobless sending shock waves through the CNMI economy.”

Doromal contends that years of contributions to the CNMI have earned these legal, long-term nonresidents—contract workers or business owners—permanent residency status.

“Extensions are like band aids, but granting them permanent residency with a pathway to citizenship will ensure a stable economy and remove the uncertainty.”
The CNMI’s exemption from U.S. asylum laws and the exemption from the H visa caps are also set to expire on Jan. 1, 2015.