The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has now placed its interim rule on the CNMI-only Transitional Workers on the internet here
The rule will be published today, Tuesday, October 27th in the Federal Register and will be open for public comment for 30 days.
The transitional worker is a category established in Public Law 110-229 to strike a balance between the need for additional workers in the Commonwealth and the goal of providing jobs and adequate wages and working conditions for local residents.
U.S. Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan made the following preliminary comment regarding the proposed rule:
“Public Law 110-229 requires that the transitional worker program be designed to promote the maximum use of U.S. workers. The law is also supposed to prevent wages and working conditions for our local residents from getting worse because of competition from alien workers.
“It is widely recognized that at the present time we do not have enough local residents to fill all the jobs in our economy. So we still need alien workers.
“But thinking ahead, 5-10 years, we are going to want to see many fewer alien workers and many more CNMI citizens, US Permanent Residents, and people from the Freely Associated States filling the jobs in our economy.
“So I will be examining the rule that was issued today very carefully to make sure that in the long run the result will be more jobs and better paying jobs for local people. That is my goal.”