Sunday, September 07, 2008

'950 alien workers unaccounted for'

By Ferdie de la Torre
Reporter

There are about 950 alien workers in the CNMI who could not be accounted for and are therefore considered overstayers, according to a CNMI Labor Department official.

Deanne Siemer, volunteer consultant and Labor administrative hearing officer, said these 950 people came to the CNMI legally and are still here, but they do not have current status to remain and have been published as overstayers.

“If these people are picked up by Immigration, they will be deported,” she said.

Siemer said the number is an estimate until Labor gets all the annual reviews done by Oct. 30, 2008.

She disclosed the number of alleged overstayers during Thursday's meeting with officials and representatives of the Saipan Chamber of Commerce and Hotel Association of the Northern Mariana Islands at Labor's conference room.

The meeting, which is one of a series, was held to obtain input from the community on what amendments Labor can propose to the controversial Public Law 15-108, or the new reform labor law.

“A lot of the people that folks see in what they think is the underground economy are people who actually have jobs and are working two jobs, three jobs and the second or third jobs maybe illegal. That is, they have no permit for that, they may not have registered. The employer is entirely illegal. But that person actually does have a job,” said Siemer.

She said there have been estimates over the years that there are 8,000 overstayers in the CNMI, but none of these are hard facts.

Labor officials explained in the meeting that the computer systems at Labor back in the '90s were very different from the one Labor is using now.

Siemer said it is possible that there are more people out there who came into the Commonwealth during the 1980s or 1990s and never worked in 2000 and thereafter.

“If someone has been illegal for 10 years or more, it will take more time to find them,” she said.

Federal immigration authorities, Siemer said, will clearly have the funds that would enable them to go back to the 1980s and 1990s records and find these people.

“Anyone who has been illegal that long is very likely to be deported by the federal authorities as soon as they are found. The Commonwealth estimates that there are relatively few people in this class,” she said.

Gov. Benigno R. Fitial had asked Labor and the Immigration Division to determine how many overstayers were, in fact, in the CNMI.

To determine the number of overstayers, Labor reviews all its actions during each quarter and determines who should have left the Commonwealth.

These are people whose labor cases are finished, whose contracts have terminated, whose appeals have been denied and so on.

A Labor employee then consults the Border Management System and finds out who did leave. The remaining people are put on the quarterly overstayer list.

The overstayer list is published in the newspapers for two consecutive weeks, and people are given the opportunity to come in to Labor and correct the records.

Labor Deputy Secretary Cinta Kaipat certifies the corrected quarterly list and sends it to the Immigration Division.