Local
Tuesday, March 23, 2010

CNMI omnibus immigration bill now law
Fitial asks Labor to reorganize, urges alien workers to abide by umbrella permit terms
By Haidee V. Eugenio
Reporter

As expected, Gov. Benigno R. Fitial immediately signed into law yesterday afternoon the omnibus immigration bill that asserts CNMI control over nonresident workers and removing all references to immigration and deportation from the Commonwealth Code to conform to the federalization law that came into effect on Nov. 28, 2009.

The Fitial administration-proposed measure passed the House and Senate during back-to-back sessions on Friday afternoon, despite the resistance of Republican House members.

House Bill 17-25, HS1 is the first bill in the 17th Legislature to be signed into CNMI law.

The over 70-page bill is now Public Law 17-1.

“We have always been concerned that the federalization law would be interpreted as affecting many of our internal labor controls, which some interpreted as such recently. However, that opinion is incorrect,” Fitial said in his three-page letter to legislative leaders.

The new law will make the Commonwealth Code conform with the requirements of the federalization law, Title VII of U.S. Public Law 110-229, with respect to federal control of immigration and deportation.

It also converts the mandatory 20- to 30-percent local hiring preference into a floating benchmark.

Fitial also asked the CNMI Department of Labor to reorganize itself to focus on local employment, and called on nonresidents to abide by the terms of their umbrella permit and all other provisions of the Commonwealth law.

“For example, the renewal of any foreign worker contract can be done only with the approval of the Labor Department,” he said.

The bill was introduced by Rep. Rafael S. Demapan (Cov-Saipan), who chairs the House Committee on Judiciary and Governmental Operations, which recommended passage of the bill.

Besides Republican lawmakers, Federal Labor Ombudsman Pam Brown, the Saipan Chamber of Commerce, and others had raised concerns and opposition to the bill's provisions. Brown had suggested that the measure's enactment will violate federal laws other than the Consolidated Natural Resources Act.

'Not about local laws'

Fitial said U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Paul L. Friedman, who handled the CNMI government's lawsuit against federalization, stated in his opinion that “the CNRA asserts federal authority over 'few' if any, matters which can be considered as purely 'local'; rather, it 'incidentally' affects some local labor matters to the extent that they are inseparable from immigration matters.”

“Remember, the federal case was not about our local labor laws. It was about the provisions of the federal law that mandate the complete removal of all aliens from the Commonwealth within five years. Judge Friedman recognized, as other federal courts have done, that labor is a subject where states have an important role in legislating the terms and conditions under which people work,” Fitial told House Speaker Froilan C. Tenorio (Cov-Saipan) and Senate President Paul A. Manglona (R-Rota).

In the CNMI's case, the federal role is limited to existing federal labor laws, which have always applied here, and other labor matters that are “inseparable from immigration matters,” the governor said.

“What our Legislature has done is to take out from our Code the few local labor matters that are inseparable from immigration matters,” he added.

Labor reorganization

The governor asked the Department of Labor to reorganize itself to focus on citizen employment. He said the omnibus bill includes the authority to do this.

“Our economy provides enough jobs to employ all our people, and we are going to take tough new measures to move them into those jobs,” he told lawmakers.

He has asked Labor to create a focal point in the department for dealing with employers on both citizen employment and guest worker issues.

“We will insist that employers obey Commonwealth law, and we need to make it as efficient as possible for them to do so. For example, I want employers to be able to deal with the department online to the maximum extent possible,” he said.

Fitial said most foreign workers are law-abiding people who just want an opportunity to live comfortably in the CNMI with their families and work at their jobs, which are important to the local economy.

“I urge every foreign worker to abide by the terms of the umbrella permit that you have been granted and all other provisions of Commonwealth law, now that it has been clarified by the bill that the Legislature has just passed,” he said.

The governor also asked Labor to create a focal point in the department for dealing with federal government agencies.

“We want to be responsive to their needs, and we want to be transparent in what we do so that they and we can work together on a good basis. I want to emphasize that there are as yet no federal regulations under the federalization law that are applicable to workers or investors in the Commonwealth,” he said.

Fitial said Judge Friedman struck down the worker regulations that were issued last year, and no final investor regulations have been issued after the comment period closed last October.

“So we need to proceed cooperatively in the interim so that there is as little instability and uncertainty as possible.. I believe this bill creates a stable employment platform for the Commonwealth and will help in the Commonwealth’s economic recovery,” he added.

Working with DHS

Fitial said he believes his administration can work with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to overcome any operational problems.

“We can make valuable contributions in the process,” he said.

He cited as an example Customs and Border Protection, which does not have the capability to record exits from the Commonwealth in digital format on a real-time basis.

“They are working on this, but they don’t have a system yet. We have had a very effective digital exit control system for years. So we are keeping our exit control system operational until CBP has their system up and running, hopefully within a year or so,” Fitial said.

The Department of Labor had the draft bill ready to go in December and consulted widely in the community about it, he said.

The Office of the Attorney General also gave careful attention to the legal issues from the very beginning of the umbrella permit process through the drafting of the bill and its presentation to the Legislature, he added.

Regulations now being worked on

Labor Secretary Gil M. San Nicolas and Deputy Labor Secretary Cinta M. Kaipat, who were present at the bill signing ceremony at 3pm yesterday, said the department is now working on regulations that will be promulgated in accordance with the new law.

The entire labor law, as amended by the omnibus bill, will shortly be on the Labor Department’s Web site at www.marianaslabor.net.

Also witnessing the governor's signing of the bill were Demapan, Labor's Jeffrey Camacho and Tom Torres, Rep. Ramon Basa (Cov-Saipan), Attorney General Edward T. Buckingham, acting Resident Executive for Indigenous Affairs Ike Demapan, and press secretary Angel Demapan.

Earlier, Fitial’s special legal counsel, Howard P. Willens, said that no federal law affects the CNMI Legislature’s ability to enact the omnibus immigration bill.

He said the CNRA does not preempt the CNMI from administering and revoking the CNMI immigration status of aliens lawfully present on the islands on Nov. 28, 2009, during the CNRA’s two-year transition period.

He agreed with Buckingham’s legal opinion, basically reaching this conclusion.