‘Those covered by HR 1466 need to maintain legal status but.’

While congressional action on H.R. 1466 has been stalled, Delegate Gregorio Kilili Sablan (Ind-MP) said that those covered by the legislation need to maintain legal status and this includes securing parole with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Dekada Movement president Bonifacio Sagana said that many of those covered by the bill who have yet to receive a grant of parole are now starting to worry.

“They don’t have any document or proof that they have applied for parole. They don’t have anything to show any immigration agent if they’re asked for any proof of their status,” Sagana told Saipan Tribune yesterday.

Many of those covered by HR 1466 are long-term foreign workers in the CNMI who are now unemployed and have minor U.S. citizen children. While others have already been granted parole, many others are still waiting for a decision on their application.

While over 11,000 foreign workers are now just waiting for a USCIS decision on the CW petitions filed by their employers, other jobless aliens covered by H.R. 1466 are waiting for parole.

Sagana said those who mailed their parole request to Guam only have a receipt from the postal office, and those who just dropped off their parole request at the USCIS office in Garapan don’t even have a receipt.

“And their umbrella permits expired on Nov. 27, so they don’t have any document. They only have a USCIS statement about parole,” said Sagana.

Sablan, in an interview yesterday, said he has responded to all the questions raised by Congress members about H.R. 1466.

“They were told this is an amnesty, it is not. They were told that it would cover illegals, it’s not. The legislation is written in a way that if you’re illegal, this bill doesn’t help you,” he said, adding that he does not support amnesty for illegals either.

Sablan said he does not call the shots so he wouldn’t know when his HR 1466 will be acted on by the U.S. House of Representatives.

But Sablan added that there’s administrative remedy provided by USCIS by way of a grant of parole, on a case-by-case basis, mostly to those covered by HR 1466. If granted, such parole would allow these individuals to lawfully remain in the CNMI until Dec. 31, 2012.

He said such one-year period also provides additional time for these individuals to still find a job, and secure a CW status.

HR 1466 proposes a “CNMI-only resident status” for immediate relatives of U.S. citizens as of May 8, 2008 and continuing to be on the islands, CNMI permanent residents, those born in the CNMI between Jan. 1, 1974 and Jan. 9, 1978, and the spouses, parents or children of U.S. citizens under the Immigration and Nationality Act.

Sablan said he has yet to see Gov. Benigno R. Fitial’s proposed alternative bill, so he couldn’t comment on it. Fitial said he is proposing an employment-based visa.

Congress also has yet to act on the Interior’s recommendations to grant improved immigration status to long-term foreign workers in the CNMI.

Sablan said there’s nothing in the federalization law that says something has to be done by Congress on the Interior recommendations.