‘Zero tolerance for tourist visa abusers’

Gov. Ralph DLG Torres wagged his finger yesterday at the alarming and illegal practice of “a few dishonest employers and developers” that have deceptively shepherded or hired individuals as “tourists” under the visa program to work in the islands’ hotels, restaurants, or construction industries.

In a statement yesterday, Torres said this illegal practice would not be tolerated and must immediately stop. “I am in the process of taking the necessary steps alongside our federal partners” to make sure “proper enforcement is carried-out here in the CNMI and to strengthen penalties where possible for those who violate federal immigration law,” Torres said.

Torres’ reprimand comes after the administration heard reports on the tourist visa waiver abuse, Saipan Tribune learned. The administration believes in the need to work with the federal government on “information-sharing and enforcement,” a senior official close to the issue said. As they understand it, the local government cannot exactly run in or raid a business or a developer’s grounds to uncover or halt alleged visa waiver abuse, as this responsibility falls in the hands of the federal government, which took back control of immigration in 2009.

Saipan Chamber of Commerce president Alex Sablan said yesterday that—while he could not speak for all businesses—he assumed some people “want to skirt the program because they are not able to get” a contract worker visa processed for an individual worker, or want to jump ahead of the process, or “jump outside the box.”

“What they are doing is illegal, we know that,” Sablan told Saipan Tribune in a phone interview. “There should be no foreign nationals coming in under the parole program process working in the Commonwealth. To have that happen, again, compromises our overall program and really compromises the economy of the CNMI. I think everybody should be concerned about this.”

In his statement, Torres said he would be working with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to ensure proper enforcement.

Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP) told Saipan Tribune that he shared Torres’ concerns and would “work with him to protect the integrity of our tourism industry.”

Federal immigration law allows thousands of tourists from participating countries under visa waiver programs to travel to the CNMI every year without a visa once various requirements are met. These tourists—Chinese or Russian for example—are the life-blood of the CNMI economy, which almost exclusively is based on tourism.

Torres believes that using these people from these countries as workers under a tourist visa “could result in the federal government revoking or cancelling the waiver programs.” “Shortcutting the process in favor of short-term expediency will only harm us all in the long run,” he said.

Alex Sablan echoes Torres’ concerns. “My statement to all businesses that are attempting to do this is: Stop it. You stand to kill tourism in the Commonwealth, a valued sector of our Commonwealth—the Chinese market and the Russian market, and we can’t afford this. I applaud the governor for coming out strongly in a statement against the activity. This needs to end.”