Mixed signals from US Labor on CW extension

A Tuesday hearing in Washington, D.C. on Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan’s (Ind-MP) bill extending the immigration transition period by five years shows just how much mixed signals the U.S. Department of Labor has been giving whether or not it will extend the program that allows the CNMI access to some 10,000 foreign workers, and when.
Sablan got earlier assurance from U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez himself that he won’t wait for the last minute before making and announcing a decision, and that a decision was already made.

But at the U.S. House Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, Oceans and Insular Affairs’ April 29 hearing on Sablan’s H.R. 4296, U.S. Labor Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy Megan J. Uzzell said the department is still in “review of existing studies” and “consultation” stage.

Perez has a July 4 deadline to decide whether to extend the CW program expiring on Dec. 31, 2014, which is just seven months away.

Sablan, during the hearing, could not hide his disappointment about the mixed signals from U.S. Labor, among other things.

He repeated Uzzell’s statement that the U.S. Labor is “very sensitive to the need for making this determination expeditiously.”

The CW extension can be done in either by a decision of the U.S. Labor secretary or by legislation, which is what Sablan’s HR 4296 intends to do.

Two other bills pending in U.S. Congress also extend the CW program by five years: S. 1237 and H.R. 2200.

Negative consequences

Subcommittee chair John Fleming (R-Louisiana) helped take the cudgels for the CNMI in his opening statement when he said, “It’s unlikely to go from 10,000 to zero this year without hurting the economy.”

Fleming was referring to the estimated 10,000 foreign workers that would have to leave the CNMI after Dec. 31, 2014, if the CW program is not extended.

Sablan made the same point.

“Frankly, if we went from 10,000 foreign workers to zero at the end of this year, our economy would tank,” Sablan said.

Gov. Eloy S. Inos, in an interview at a proclamation signing yesterday, said he appreciates that Fleming is “taking that position—or at least making that statement,” and hopes that other members “will see that as well” so that H.R. 4296 could pass.

The governor said he also plans to soon write another letter to the U.S. Labor secretary, asking again to extend the CW program and to announce his decision sooner.

He said he will reiterate the “negative consequences for not making the announcement sooner.”

The governor also wrote to Sablan on April 28 on the eve of the hearing in Washington, D.C., expressing his full support of H.R. 4296 extending the CW program by five years.

“To be direct, H.R. 4296 appropriately addresses and resolves incredibly significant issues that must as soon as possible be decided in order to ensure the immediate economic viability of the Northern Mariana Islands ‘and’ protect the individual welfare and livelihood of thousands of foreign workers and investors in the NMI,” Inos said in his two-page letter, made available yesterday.

US workers

Inos also pointed out that the CNMI people are “slowly finding their place in the workforce and with business opportunities.”

“However, the economy of the Northern Mariana Islands is not prepared at this time to lose these contributing members of our community and cannot survive if these workers and the foreign investors doing business here are required to close shop and return to their countries of origin on January 1, 2015,” the governor said.

He added that the “unavoidable truth” is that the CNMI “needs more time to train and prepare its local citizenry to phase out its dependency on foreign workers.

Sablan said his bill does not change the goal of ultimately ending dependence on foreign workers, but stretches out the time to get there.

“My bill gives us another five years to train U.S. workers to fill jobs in our economy. We are already investing over $1 million in training each year. The money comes from the fee employers pay to hire foreign workers,” he said.

Most of the CNMI’s foreign workers are from the Philippines and other Asian countries, working in virtually all aspects of the economy.

What’s next?

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Honolulu district director David Gulick testified on H.R. 4296 but took no official position on the bill.

Gulick fielded questions from Sablan during the hearing about the 10,000 foreign workers granted in fiscal year 2013 versus the cap of 15,000 foreign workers that USCIS had set for the year. The fiscal year 2014 cap is 14,000 workers.

Gulick said, “At the moment there is still some need for the room for growth.”

He also said about 4,000 workers have been given status so far in 2014.

“So, obviously, there is continuing need for these workers,” Sablan said.

Gulick did warn, however, that if there were no extension of the transition period, his agency would have to zero out the foreign worker permits at the end of this year.

The CNMI has been asking for a five-year extension to give them more time to train and employ as many U.S. citizen workers as possible to help fill the void that would be left by foreign workers once the CW program ends.

But foreign workers do not necessarily have to exit the CNMI after the CW program expires, if they qualify for an H visa, for example, that their employer would have to apply for them.

Asylum, E2C visa

H.R. 4296 also extends the E2C investor visa beyond Dec. 31, 2014, which Inos also supports.

The bill also extends the CNMI’s exemption from accepting asylum applications, which is supposed to end Jan. 1, 2015. The governor also supports the exemption extension.

Inos also supports the bill’s provision exempting the CNMI and Guam from the national cap on the H visas, which he said is also “perfectly appropriate and critical to the Department of Defense plans to realign U.S. forces from Okinawa to Guam and the Northern Marianas.”