A Senate committee soon will hear a bill that, if passed, could be the impetus for economic activity and output in the CNMI, as well as revenue for the ailing government.
In late January, Donald Manglona introduced Senate Bill 23-55, which would allow the CNMI’s undocumented residents (believed to be in the thousands) to qualify for and receive non-REAL ID CNMI driver’s licenses. The CNMI Department of Labor, according to secretary of labor Leila Staffler, does not have recent data that estimates the numbers of undocumented residents in Saipan, Tinian, and Rota; however a 1998 law says that at the time the number was believed to be around 5,000.
Mr. Manglona’s bill is intended to improve road safety and to encourage insurance coverage for road accidents among the undocumented residents who currently drive without licenses and coverage. The bill, if adopted into public law, also would assess an annual $50 fee for each license and yearly renewal. Because the license would not be a federal standard REAL ID, undocumented residents who get a CNMI driver’s license will not be able to use that ID card to travel outside the CNMI.
The change in the law may have broader implications for the CNMI economy. Among the economic impediments cited by business owners in Governor Arnold Palacios’ March summit on economic development and sustainability is the lack of skilled and qualified workers available to work in the CNMI. There is, however, believed to be a pool of these workers residing in Saipan, Tinian and Rota. The problem is they are undocumented, and have no access to identification cards aside from their foreign IDs, if at all. Thus, when an employer wants to hire the undocumented resident, asks for identification for their personnel and payroll records, and sees only a foreign ID, the employer would have to go through the process required by the federal government of job postings, reports, and other processes that pose an impediment to the hiring.
“There are no regulations that specifically say a person is required to have certain legal status to apply and keep jobs,” Ms. Staffler told Kandit. “All of our regulations talk about what businesses are supposed to do. When businesses don’t follow those regulations, then we have cause to investigate. The regulations that speak to that are like the US worker preference requirements and participation objectives.”
Employers don’t have to verify their workers’ legal status, but if they have reason to believe their recent hire has no legal status to work in the CNMI, then they have an obligation to go through a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement process, according to Ms. Staffler. Among those processes is the E-Verify system. But there’s a significant gap in this process.
“Through the USCIS they are supposed to do things like the E-Verify program,” she said. “But even that is not something we have access to.”
If a business hires an undocumented worker and someone makes a complaint to the CNMI Department of Labor, then Labor will investigate and may issue a notice of violation to the business. But according to Ms. Staffler, that’s where the penalties end as far as CNMI DOL is concerned.
“We do not go after the undocumented because we have no jurisdiction,” she said.
With a non-REAL ID CNMI driver’s license that Mr. Manglona proposes, undocumented residents not only will have legitimate means of going to and from work, they will have local identification cards employers can rely upon to keep personnel and payroll files. And if the business is following the CNMI government’s tax laws and regulations, those workers’ payroll taxes also will increase revenue to the local government.
Kandit is awaiting response from the governor’s office as to Mr. Palacios’ thoughts on the matter.
Mr. Manglona’s bill was referred to the Senate Judiciary, Government, and Law committee. Its chairwoman, Celina Roberto Babauta, has told Kandit she will be scheduling a hearing on the bill some time in May.
