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Manglona resets hearing in lawsuit vs CW rule
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Posted on Nov 15 2011
By Ferdie de la Torre
Reporter
Reporter
U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona has ordered a new hearing date for the lawsuit that seeks to stop federal officials from enforcing the CNMI-only Transitional Worker final rule on Nov. 28, 2011.
Manglona ordered yesterday that the hearing on the motion for a preliminary injunction scheduled for Nov. 22, 2011, be reset to Nov. 29, 2011.
Manglona set the new schedule at the request of the parties in the lawsuit.
She gave the plaintiffs until yesterday, Nov. 14, to file their legal brief and any exhibits in support of their motion for a preliminary injunction.
The defendants, on the other hand, were given until Nov. 21 to file their legal brief and any exhibits in opposition to the motion. The plaintiffs are given until Nov. 23 to file any reply.
Attorney Stephen C. Woodruff, counsel for plaintiffs, and Theodore W. Atkinson, senior litigation counsel of the Department of Justice Office of Immigration Litigation – District Court Section, submitted yesterday the agreement to modify the briefing schedule and postpone the hearing.
The plaintiffs in the case are Bonifacio V. Sagana, Manuel T. Vilaga, Gerardo G. De Guzman, Hector T. Sevilla, Carlito J. Marquez, Eduardo M. Elenzano, and Jong Ho Lee.
They want the court to declare the implementation of the CW final rule as unlawful and exceeds the defendants’ constitutional and statutory authority.
Vilaga is a U.S. citizen, while Lee is a U.S. permanent resident. The other plaintiffs are long-term nonresident workers who mostly have U.S. citizen children.
Respondents in the case are Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services District Director David Gulick, U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis, and U.S. Department of Labor District Director Terrence Trotter.
The administration of Gov. Benigno R. Fitial also previously filed a lawsuit in an attempt to block the federal takeover of the local immigration system.
In November 2009, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Paul L. Friedman upheld the constitutionality of the law that applies federal immigration laws to the CNMI.
