These are people-not just statistics

By JOE RACE
Special to the Saipan Tribune

Editor’s Note: This following story is part of a continuing series of contributed stories related to the effects of the new federal immigration policy, as seen from the personal perspective of people who will be affected by those changes. Future stories will explore these effects not only among alien workers but also local residents, employers, etc.

This concept was inspired by the heart-warming and well thought-out essay by MHS student Kristina Valencia, recently published in the Saipan Tribune.

Marie Miradora

After graduating from a hotel management college in Manila, Marie Miradora came to Saipan in 1993 to work in the hotel industry. The hotels started to cut back on staff and Marie found herself needing work. She began filling in as a houseworker for several different families over the subsequent years.

Meanwhile, Marie had fallen in love and she and her now ex-husband had a beautiful baby girl named Katrina in 1995. Because of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, Katrina immediately became a U.S. citizen.

Well, here’s the rub. Marie’s work contract ran out in 2010 and she has been unable to find work. She managed to obtain an “umbrella permit,” and is legally on Saipan until Nov. 27, 2011. There are less and less jobs every day. American citizens are moving to the mainland, businesses are closing, and Marie is now experiencing the possibility of being deported to the Philippines. She hasn’t found work in the CNMI, plus she has no prospects for employment back home. She is in great emotional turmoil, knowing that she may have to leave her only child.

What will happen to Katrina? Children need their parents’ love and guidance more than ever in their teenage years. Katrina will likely find friends and relatives on Saipan that will love and care for her, and she will be able to finish high school. But most significantly and emotionally, she will be separated from her immediate family.

Estilita D. Macale

Estilita Macale came to Saipan 14 years ago as a houseworker and a part-time masseuse. Meanwhile, because of financial and unemployment pressures, her husband and she divorced. But the marriage produced a fine boy, Sean Bennett Pinala, who was born 13 years ago on Saipan and is a U.S. citizen. He is in the 7th grade and gets along well with his classmates and teachers at Hopwood Junior High School. He has never been to the Philippines.

Estilita has not been able to find work and is worried that she will be forced to leave Saipan, her home for the past years. She is optimistic that Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan is working on this issue. She cannot imagine leaving her son here and experiencing Christmas with an incomplete family back home. It is difficult for Estilita to call the Philippines home, as she views Saipan her lifelong home.

Malou Carreon

Malou Carreon came to Saipan some 15 years ago and worked at a variety of jobs. She had two American children on Saipan and cannot accept the idea that she might have to leave her children, even if she could find safe and loving homes for them. Her daughter is Cindy Carreon, 15 years old and a sophomore at Marianas High School. She is bright and articulate, and a whiz-bang teenager on the computer. Malou’s son is Macrino Carreon Jr., 10 years old, a hardworking lad at Garapan Elementary School. She is also one of those foreign workers with an umbrella permit but unable to find work.

Only the most mean-spirited American would want to separate a mother and her children and send the mother back to the Philippines with suitcase in hand, and waving goodbye to her children at the airport.

I trust that congressman Sablan is working on this issue with the numerous government agencies. The departure dates for Marie, Estilita, and Malou are rapidly approaching. It will be heart-rending to watch the breakup of families at the airport.and unfortunately, it has already started and will continue every day leading up to Christmas and beyond. It will definitely take away the good cheer and festivities of the holiday season, and especially prominent this year, will be the lack of kindness and human justice.

Congressman Sablan, please continue your hard work on behalf of our fellow Americans.

Note: These are only a few of the hundreds of parents and children that may soon experience separation because of laws and rules, shoving aside human concerns and love. Poet Robert Browning said it clearly “Take away love and our earth is a tomb.”