Local
Thursday, April 02, 2009

Schorr: Investor, worker rules out in 1 to 2 months

By Haidee V. Eugenio
Reporter

Major business and workers groups are relieved that the start of transition to federal immigration is delayed by 180 days, but they want the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to soon publish the CNMI-only transitional worker and investor regulations.

Jeff Schorr, field representative of the Interior's Office of Insular Affairs, yesterday told Saipan Chamber of Commerce members and guests that these two sets of regulations will be out in “another month or two.”

Homeland Security's decision to delay federalization by 180 days-from June 1, 2009 to Nov. 28, 2009-was welcome news for members of the Saipan Chamber of Commerce, the Tinian Chamber of Commerce, the Rota Casino Gaming Commission and the United Workers Movement NMI.

Doug Brennan, vice president of the Saipan Chamber of Commerce, said the delay gives businesses a breathing room to develop a business plan once these regulations are published.

“Our position paper stated that we are in favor of a delay simply because we want all the rules and regulations in front of us before this takes place. It's very difficult to develop a business plan for any of our member businesses when we don't know what the rules are going to be. What we were told was it will be U.S. immigration but there was talk about various exemptions and waivers. We'd like to see these,” Brennan told Saipan Tribune after the Chamber's general membership meeting at the Pacific Islands Club in San Antonio.

The Saipan Chamber of Commerce is the largest business organization in the CNMI with approximately 150 members.

To date, DHS has released only the Guam-CNMI visa waiver program regulations.

Phillip Mendiola-Long, president of the Tinian Chamber of Commerce, said the 180-day delay was the correct decision considering the lack of time available to make “extremely difficult policy decisions.”

“I frankly did not see it possible to implement Public Law 110-229 in the time frame available because DHS had not completed regulations for the CNMI Transitional Worker Program. They had not completed regulations for existing CNMI foreign investor transitions, or created the new foreign investor policy. They had not established regulations for immediate relatives, and they had not established regulations regarding prevailing wage rates,” Mendiola-Long said.

He said it would not have been prudent for DHS to create regulations in haste just to meet a deadline.

Mendiola-Long said the Tinian Chamber of Commerce appreciates the extension and intends to work closely, as equal stakeholders, with DHS/U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in the next 180 days “to ensure that policy and regulations promulgated will not bring extreme hardship on the people of the CNMI.”

“One of the main objectives of the Tinian Chamber of Commerce is to ensure that future policy and regulations drafted will address issues affecting all the islands, not just Saipan,” he added.

Mendiola-Long is also executive vice president of Bridge Investment Group-CNMI, which is building a $40 million to $50 million casino and condominiums project on Tinian. The company halted construction at the site because of federalization.

Impact study on Rota

Diego M. Songao, chairman of the Rota Casino Gaming Commission, said the delay will provide an opportunity for the federal government to conduct an impact study, at least on the island of Rota as it tries to develop its casino industry.

Just like Tinian, Rota's casino industry targets mostly Chinese tourists who, along with Russians, will not be exempt from the U.S. visa requirement.

“It will also give them time to put security measures in place to see if the CNMI-Guam visa waiver.may continue to include Chinese and Russians,” Songao told Saipan Tribune.

Rabby Syed, president of the United Workers Movement NMI, is thankful for the federalization delay, and to Delegate Gregorio “Kilili” Sablan for raising with DHS the issue of immediate relatives of Freely Associated States.

“We also like Mr. Sablan to raise other issues like those parents of U.S. citizen children with disabilities, long-term guest workers with U.S.-born children, and to give immigration status to guest workers with unpaid wages so they can stay here until they get their wages,” he said.

Businessman Juan T. Guerrero, a former president of the Saipan Chamber of Commerce, said businesses are thankful for the delay which he said will give them more time to make more appropriate planning.

“The delay will allow us more appropriate time to review them and come up with a solid decision to operate businesses,” he said, adding that the regulations will restrict hiring of non-professional foreign workers.

But Guerrero, president of Herman's Modern Bakery, said professional categories do not include bakers, unless employers pay them the federal wage rates.

“They can qualify but it means you have to be paying U.S. standard rates and you're looking at maybe $30,000 a year. How many employees earning $30,000 can we hire at Herman's Bakery?” he added.

Director Hirshbein Speaks At Chamber Luncheon

AS BUSINESSES COMPETE FOR LIMITED WORKER SLOTS
'Big projects will get priority'

By Stefan Sebastian
Business Editor

Labor director Barry Hirsbein answer questions about the pre-transition period during yesterday's Saipan Chamber of Commerce general membership meeting at the Hyatt Regency Saipan's Sandcastle. (Jacqueline Hernandez) The federal cap on the number of foreigners labor officials can permit to work in the Commonwealth after the passage of legislation federalizing local immigration laws has yet to be reached, according to Division of Labor chief Barry Hirshbein, but regulators must still give many available openings to key development projects to spur economic growth.

“The numbers look good,” Hirshbein said before a meeting of the Saipan Chamber of Commerce Wednesday at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Garapan, adding that Labor currently has about 300 employment slots available below the more than 22,400 worker limit imposed by the bill.

The federalization cap has business leaders in the Commonwealth shaken, as many expect they will have to compete with each other for available worker slots to fill job vacancies. Many have also voiced fears that the government will give preferential treatment to employers responsible for major construction projects that are beneficial to the local economy.

However, Hirshbein in his speech said such concessions are necessary to encourage future investment in the Commonwealth. “We do have to make allowances for big development projects in the CNMI,” he said, noting new hotels due to be built at Lau Lau Bay and on Tinian. “We have to be sensitive to their needs in terms of encouraging future development.”

Hirshbein acknowledged this might have some consequences for other businesses. “Some of your needs may have to be put on hold” in terms of filling job openings, he said, as a result of this policy.

Businesses that rely on foreign workers, he added, should consider attempting to extend their work visas for six months in anticipation of the federal government's takeover of immigration rules, and later submitting an application for a two-year renewal.

“There's no guarantee that this will work,” said Hirshbein. “But if you time it well, you could submit a two-year renewal application for a worker in whom you feel secure about your need to keep beyond the end of the transition period. We believe the federal government will honor those application and those permits approved during the transition period.”

Additionally, Hirshbein noted a recent change in Labor's policy for work visa applications. Previous Labor rules stipulated that incomplete applications would be rejected. During a management meeting Wednesday, however, officials clarified the policy to state that an application missing a health certificate will no longer be rejected automatically but one must be provided before the application is approved.