The end is near: Part 2

Three months to the deadline for U.S. Labor to decide whether the transition period is to be extended or not and worries of mass repatriation are looming in the minds of foreign workers in the Commonwealth. Lengthening the decision to pass an immigration reform bill or to extend the transition is like inflicting severe pain on the already disenfranchised foreign workers on the islands. The required 180 days is insufficient for us to plan ahead, short of packing our personal and valuable belongings or disposing it. The U.S. House of Representatives, USCIS, DHS, and the U.S. Department of Labor are currently in “silent mode” on foreign workers’ immigration issues in the CNMI. Foreign workers are left with nothing but worries and uncertainties every day. In other words, foreign workers are being harmed and demoralized. A March 3, 2014, article titled “No assurance on CW extension” creates more negative speculations that, indeed, the end is near.
Foreign workers and employers cannot move forward within the next nine months of 2014. Majority, if not all, of foreign workers’ plans for the next nine months are on hold because of the immigration instability. The rest are minimizing their spending on unnecessary items, cannot decide whether to enroll in health insurance, or apply for personal loans, among others.

Worries and uncertainties

If the U.S. authorities will decide not to pass the comprehensive immigration reform bill or not to extend the transition period, then it is to the advantage of foreign workers if these authorities announce it as early as today so that foreign workers will have enough time to apply for jobs in other countries within the next nine months. A lot of former CNMI foreign workers are now enjoying employment in other countries such as the Middle East, China, Africa, Malaysia, South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, Canada, and in the U.S. mainland, among others. This is not the only place where foreign workers can explore their knowledge and abilities, although they’d love to stay and work here for many more years.

US citizen children

U.S. authorities must lay down their decision on the status of foreign workers as early as today, so that foreign worker parents will still have enough time to educate their children that sooner or later, they will be leaving Saipan after Dec. 31, 2014, and will say goodbye to the island they call home. With that, children can also adjust themselves on what to do within the next nine months of waiting.

Today, thousands of foreign workers’ children are already at a voting age. What if these children will say, “I will stay on Saipan. I will not go with my parents because this is my place”? U.S. authorities must have a contingency plan on how to deal with these kids that will be left behind by their parents. Some U.S. citizen children of foreign workers who were repatriated after the closure of garment factories are now coming back one by one, landing at the airport with their backpack and seeking jobs here on Saipan and in Guam. To date, there are thousands of foreign workers children who are already eligible to vote in the upcoming CNMI local election. U.S. authorities must decide now so that parents of these children will still have time to lead, guide, and train their kids on how to exercise their right to vote. These children can also stay behind if they so decide, and find a job while their parents are miles away from them.

Repatriation issues

The defective USCIS final regulations state that the last employer of records will repatriate their foreign national workers to their country of hire. There are a lot of foreign workers who are now unemployed because of the non-renewal of their CW1 permit. UCSIS said that “a CW1 grantee is no longer qualified for any type of parole.” Because of that fatal regulation, a lot are already out of immigration status. USCIS’ fatal regulations are eliminating foreign workers, indirectly driving them out of U.S. soil. In some cases, former employers are no longer on island. Who will then be in charge of the repatriation of these out-of-status foreign workers?

To my fellow foreign workers, be mindful that there is a saying: “Do not depend too much on anyone in this world because even your own shadow will leave you when you are in darkness.” True.

Carlito J. Marquez
Lower Base, Saipan