Hope for the best, prepare for the worst

I am not a xenophobic local, but I am beginning to have disdain for those nonresident workers and other outsiders who continue to ask the USCIS for improved status so they could remain in the CNMI. Remember that the CNMI, as part of the United States of America, is covered by U.S. immigration laws. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services already has policies and procedures in place that govern immigration matters. Their job is to uphold and enforce the immigration laws as enacted by Congress. Any deviation or amendments to these laws is the purview of Congress and Congress alone. The final CW rule and regulations have been published and approved by the federal government, mindful of the primary intent of U.S. Public Law 110-229, which is intended to reduce the nonresident worker population in the CNMI to zero in three to five years and not to devise ways to expand or amend the immigration laws as they are now asking for, which is to upgrade or enhance the immigration status of those nonresident workers who have been here for five or more years, who have U.S. citizen children born here, and those spouses of U.S. citizens who cannot qualify through U.S. immigration regulations or may not or could not afford the fees imposed or other requisite qualification.

Realistically, Congress is the only body that can amend or make laws that affect immigration in the United States and its possession. Presently, they are heavily involved in other pressing issues like the depressed U.S. economy, over 9 percent unemployment and their own worries about the hardship faced by the growing number of poor people in America who have lost jobs, growing hunger in their families, and a large number losing their homes due to eviction or foreclosure for nonpayment of rent or mortgages. Would these congressmen or women disregard their suffering constituents and turn their focus to helping the nonresident workers in the CNMI and provide legislation to help the nonresident, non-U.S. citizens in their plight to get improved status so they can remain in the CNMI? I think not. Nonresident workers can only hope for the best. But be prepared for the worst.

The final CW rules and regulations are now published and will be implemented on Nov. 27, 2011. The USCIS will only work with these CW rules and regulations and will not deviate or make exceptions for anyone. After Nov. 27, the time to dream and hope for the best is over and you’d better be prepared for the worst as you head for the airport for your own return trip or deportation back to your country. All nonresident workers and other non-local, non-U.S. citizens must have some legally approved immigration status to remain in the CNMI or be subject to removal or deportation. It’s the law! If and until the immigration laws are changed by Congress, you must return to where you came from.

For those nonresident who are asking, “Who will take care of my children,” the answer is YOU. You, the mother and father who planned to have kids should have also planned for their future. You came to the CNMI to work, with no promise, assurance, or guarantee that you will get enhanced status to remain here. Your children, who became U.S. citizens by virtue of being born in the CNMI, are still your children and are still your primary responsibility. Just because they are U.S. citizens does not mean that the United States is responsible for their care and well-being. You, as parents, are supposed to take care of them. Your children, being U.S. citizens, are entitled to stay here or any U.S. jurisdiction, but you can’t. You have to return to your country of origin. The matter of the care and well-being of your children, U.S. citizen or not, remains with you.

Terry Camacho
Chalan Kanoa, Saipan