US Senate bill provides better treatment to Pinoy workers in CNMI
The dream of foreign workers – including Filipinos – in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands to have improved legal rights may become a reality within the year.
This developed after the US Senate energy and natural resources committee added the House committee-approved version of the proposed Immigration, Security and Labor Acts (ISLA) under H.R. 3079 to a larger bill that benefits most, if not all, American states.
ISLA seeks to extend US immigration laws to the Marianas and provide a window of opportunity – albeit narrow – for thousands of foreign workers there to have a non-immigrant status.
"Today in a markup, (the) Senate energy committee unanimously reported 42 public land bills on a voice vote … Also, we note that 17 of the 42 bills are already incorporated into S. 2483, a broadly partisan collection of some 60 individual bills," according to the committee.
The committee added that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, of Nevada, plans to call up on the Senate floor soon to approve S. 2483 or the National Forests, Parks, Public Land, and Reclamation Projects Authorization Act of 2007.
By bundling H.R. 3079 into S. 2483, ISLA has increased its chances of being signed into law this year.
S. 2483 is an amalgamation of bills that seek to protect and preserve heritage sites from Alaska to North Carolina.
Its approval is "one step closer to safeguarding our nation's westernmost border from terrorism, establishing an immigration policy consistent with the U.S. and stimulating further economic development in the Marianas," Rep. Donna M. Christensen, of Virgin Islands, said in a statement. She heads the House subcommittee on insular affairs.
There had been efforts in the past to pass legislation extending US immigration laws to the CNMI. But this plan did not materialize in the Republicans-controlled US Congress.
When Democrats took control of Congress in January 2007, they made CNMI federalization a priority. They were appalled by reports of slave labor and prostitution in the CNMI.
Under the present setup, alien workers' rights are limited, thereby making them susceptible to abuse by their employers.
Instead of reporting to the CNMI Department of Labor their abusive employers, most foreign workers just suffered in silence for fear that their boss will retaliate and not renew their contract.
Among the infractions employers commit are non-payment or delayed payment of wages and overtime, unauthorized deductions, barracks lockdown, and in some worse cases, forced prostitution.
"We should all loathe that such a system was allowed to flourish, and that a corrupt lobbyist was able to stand in the way of reforms needed to secure for these workers the basic human rights we all deserve," Rep. Nick J. Rahall III, House committee on natural resources chairman, said.
The corrupt lobbyist was Jack Abramoff, whose influence prevented the then Republican-controlled Congress from passing a bill that will protect foreign workers.
By adopting H.R. 3079, the US senators killed the foreign workers' hopes of getting a non-immigrant visa that would allow them and their immediate family already residing in the CNMI to work, travel, and study in the US mainland.
H.R. 3079 has been amended to exclude a grandfathering of alien workers clause. This provision states that foreigners who have been legally working in the CNMI for at least five years can be eligible for a non-immigrant status.
An estimated 5,500 Filipinos on Saipan could have qualified to apply for a non-immigrant visa and join about 2.1 million of their "kababayans" in the US mainland.
Filipinos on Saipan worked as accountants, clerks, engineers, construction workers, farmers, housekeepers, hotel or restaurant food servers, and journalists.
In exchange for the grandfathering provision, Christensen, who sponsored H.R. 3079, proposed to include a provision that could give alien workers US citizenship by directing the US Department of the Interior to report to Congress the status of the alien workers in the CNMI two years after the bill was enacted.
"Such recommendations … related to whether or not the Congress should consider permitting lawfully admitted guest workers … to apply for long-term status under the immigration and nationality laws of the US," page 21 of H.R. 3079 read. – GMANews.TV
This developed after the US Senate energy and natural resources committee added the House committee-approved version of the proposed Immigration, Security and Labor Acts (ISLA) under H.R. 3079 to a larger bill that benefits most, if not all, American states.
ISLA seeks to extend US immigration laws to the Marianas and provide a window of opportunity – albeit narrow – for thousands of foreign workers there to have a non-immigrant status.
"Today in a markup, (the) Senate energy committee unanimously reported 42 public land bills on a voice vote … Also, we note that 17 of the 42 bills are already incorporated into S. 2483, a broadly partisan collection of some 60 individual bills," according to the committee.
The committee added that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, of Nevada, plans to call up on the Senate floor soon to approve S. 2483 or the National Forests, Parks, Public Land, and Reclamation Projects Authorization Act of 2007.
By bundling H.R. 3079 into S. 2483, ISLA has increased its chances of being signed into law this year.
S. 2483 is an amalgamation of bills that seek to protect and preserve heritage sites from Alaska to North Carolina.
Its approval is "one step closer to safeguarding our nation's westernmost border from terrorism, establishing an immigration policy consistent with the U.S. and stimulating further economic development in the Marianas," Rep. Donna M. Christensen, of Virgin Islands, said in a statement. She heads the House subcommittee on insular affairs.
There had been efforts in the past to pass legislation extending US immigration laws to the CNMI. But this plan did not materialize in the Republicans-controlled US Congress.
When Democrats took control of Congress in January 2007, they made CNMI federalization a priority. They were appalled by reports of slave labor and prostitution in the CNMI.
Under the present setup, alien workers' rights are limited, thereby making them susceptible to abuse by their employers.
Instead of reporting to the CNMI Department of Labor their abusive employers, most foreign workers just suffered in silence for fear that their boss will retaliate and not renew their contract.
Among the infractions employers commit are non-payment or delayed payment of wages and overtime, unauthorized deductions, barracks lockdown, and in some worse cases, forced prostitution.
"We should all loathe that such a system was allowed to flourish, and that a corrupt lobbyist was able to stand in the way of reforms needed to secure for these workers the basic human rights we all deserve," Rep. Nick J. Rahall III, House committee on natural resources chairman, said.
The corrupt lobbyist was Jack Abramoff, whose influence prevented the then Republican-controlled Congress from passing a bill that will protect foreign workers.
By adopting H.R. 3079, the US senators killed the foreign workers' hopes of getting a non-immigrant visa that would allow them and their immediate family already residing in the CNMI to work, travel, and study in the US mainland.
H.R. 3079 has been amended to exclude a grandfathering of alien workers clause. This provision states that foreigners who have been legally working in the CNMI for at least five years can be eligible for a non-immigrant status.
An estimated 5,500 Filipinos on Saipan could have qualified to apply for a non-immigrant visa and join about 2.1 million of their "kababayans" in the US mainland.
Filipinos on Saipan worked as accountants, clerks, engineers, construction workers, farmers, housekeepers, hotel or restaurant food servers, and journalists.
In exchange for the grandfathering provision, Christensen, who sponsored H.R. 3079, proposed to include a provision that could give alien workers US citizenship by directing the US Department of the Interior to report to Congress the status of the alien workers in the CNMI two years after the bill was enacted.
"Such recommendations … related to whether or not the Congress should consider permitting lawfully admitted guest workers … to apply for long-term status under the immigration and nationality laws of the US," page 21 of H.R. 3079 read. – GMANews.TV
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