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Surge in number of people getting police clearance noted
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Posted on Oct 20 2011
By Ferdie de la Torre
Reporter
Reporter
The Superior Court is seeing a significant increase in the number of alien workers lining up to obtain police clearances since early this month.
Many alien workers, especially those applying for jobs, are getting police clearance as the Nov. 27 deadline approaches for employers to petition nonresident employees for a CW or Commonwealth-only worker status.
Court staff Dexter Macaranas said the number of people getting police clearances used to average at 50 every day but in the past two weeks about 150 to 200 mostly alien workers would show up per day.
“It keeps us busy, especially on Mondays. One time, one person in a line was getting police clearance for 40 people,” Macaranas said.
Jason Kelley, an account clerk at the courts’ cashier, also noticed that many alien workers have been getting clearances since the first week of October.
Kelley said he used to collect police clearance fees from less than 100 people in a day, but now he is entertaining up to 200 customers daily.
A police clearance costs $15.
Kelley believes that the sudden increase in the number of people obtaining police clearances started when the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services released the final regulations governing nonresident workers on Sept. 7, 2011.
Dina Calvo, 40, was among those who obtained a police clearance yesterday, believing it to be one of the requirements to get a parole in place.
Calvo said she has an immediate relative status since 2007, but since she currently has no job she must obtain parole in place.
She said she and her husband, who is based in Guam, did not bother to process her “green card” before because she was satisfied with her IR status.
“I never thought that this [federalization] will happen to Saipan,” said the mother of two, who also have IR statuses.
