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Should CWs go?
I was probably in the second grade when I first heard about this issue. This issue has been around for over 10 years now but the real question is: Has there been any improvements?
The CW program gives many foreigners a chance to work but the permits were set at only 10,500 by 2024. As a result, this would break families apart. Many of these workers have been contributing members of the CNMI for 10, 20, even 30 years and more and they are granted zero compassion and are made to exit as soon as the caps are reached.
One argument is that CW workers take jobs from local people and make up too much of the population. However, what will happen when they repatriate most of these CW workers? The island will lose its manpower and the islands’ population will decrease dramatically.
I think the real issue here is that this situation is breaking families apart. It jeopardizes the futures of our younger generation. Many employers have renewed the contracts of many workers for decades and, as a result, many have planted roots and have started families here. Sending parents away means that their U.S.-born children would have to follow them back to places that are foreign to them.
If we speak strictly about jobs, then sending our long-time foreign workers away only impedes our economy. Having to re-hire and re-train, complicates the situation even more because it simply is not feasible. Sending our foreign workers away would only cause a crisis in the economy.
I think that the solution is for the local government to grant our foreign workers who have been living on island for more than 10 years a status that gives them residency. By giving our CW workers this status, it minimizes the worries of their families and the community. By providing them a certain status that allows them to retain residency, it allows these families to stay together and provide our current generation of U.S. citizens a future they deserve.
Kathleen Lacanilao
Koblerville, Saipan
