It’s disturbing that Ms Brown, the Federal Ombudsman, continues to give out advice that isn’t exactly true to guests workers. She should know better than to make the statements that she has made lately.

Just for a little background, employers wanting to hire new employees in the US, including the CNMI, need to have a properly filled out I-9 form for each new employee. In fact, the Department of Homeland Security has issued an I-9 form specifically for the CNMI.

The I-9 CNMI form that is required for all new hires after November 27th, 2009 has a list of acceptable identification proving a person’s right to work in the CNMI, including CNMI only documents. This form can be viewed on the internet at http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/i-9_cnmi.pdf.

Anyone viewing this document can see that can see that there are only three classes of acceptable CNMI only documents:

1. Foreign Passport with red band entry permit(IR).
2. Foreign passport with CNMI permanent residence card.
3. Foreign Passport with Temporary Employment Authorization Letter from CNMI Department of Labor as long as proposed employment is not in conflict with any restrictions or limitations on the temporary work authorization letter.

Call me stupid, but it seems to me that having a revocation date on the permit is a limitation on that permit. Furthermore, I never knew that a permit allowing a student to stay in the CNMI was an employment authorization letter. Of course, Ms. Brown is unilaterally saying all of this and more, even though she is not connected with the Department of Homeland Security and has absolutely no authority in this matter.

I hope concerned people look out for themselves and make sure that they are following the law because after Ms. Brown’s unlawful collection of data in December, I find her opinions untrustworthy at best.

I am very concerned about the collection of information currently underway at the Federal Ombudsman’s Office for several reasons and I think everyone else should be concerned as well.

I think that all residents of the CNMI, whether they are aliens or citizens, deserve a proper and legal count of long term guest workers in the CNMI that complies not just with Public Law 110-229 but every other law that governs how government agencies gather, collect and store data.

I hope that this will hopefully open up some eyes and get the proper people looking into this issue. Government, no matter how benign their purpose, must follow the law.

Basically, the Federal Ombudsman’s Office in Saipan has decided to undertake an alien registration program. The official notice makes it very clear that all aliens must report and register, no matter what status they have under the law. They are expected to line up in the government office to submit their proper papers. They are warned that there must be no delay and that people who don’t register on time will not be allowed to. It sounds kind of draconian and there is nothing in the notice to say that we are dealing with a voluntary registration.

Just read it for yourself…..

Now take a look at the form….

Did you see something there? Well maybe you did. First off it looks really amateurish for a federal government form. Unfortunately, the biggest problems with the form are the things that are not there. There is no OMB number. This means that the OMB didn’t review the form to ensure that the form was a legally required request. There is no privacy act notice and paperwork reduction act notice. There is no statement that the form is completely voluntary. In other words, the form itself is in violation of federal law. Yippee.

I wonder when someone will speak up and stop this gestapo like registration program? When will someone help ensure that the law is followed?

More than just the increased income, I also had more free time. I was in the Philippines at the time so I was able to go out to Jollibee with the kids whenever I wanted to. I could let them play in the kiddie area while I just sat back and relaxed. This easy life continued for about a year.

It continued until there was a confluence of negative events all at once. The financial crisis in September 2008 was a major catalyst. People started getting scared and within a few weeks, the paid writing market just about dried up completely. People just weren’t paying for business services. This meant a sharp reduction in my writing income.

Another problem that came up was a bad decision on my part. I decided to take a month to help a friend try to build a business quickly. He needed the help and I thought that I could afford to stay away for a month from paid writing while people got their heads back on straight. Bad move. It was a bad decision because first the friend’s business went nowhere and was basically a lost cause. Second, well the few existing customers I had looked elsewhere for their writing needs.

As I said, there was a confluence of events. The last nail in the coffin was diabetes. Normally diabetes develops over a period of time and there are plenty of warning signs. Not for me. I was hit like a freight train and it culminated in a month of being bed ridden not able to figure out what I had. By time I got to the doctor and got proper medication, I had been out of work for more than 2 months. Two months is a long time in an industry that moves at internet speed.

December 2008 wasn’t a good month for me. I spent the month trying to once again get back into doing the internet work that had solely supported me for more than a year. I sputtered along but several things started to become abundantly clear to me. I think it was the turning point for my time in the Philippines.

By January 2009, I was looking for alternatives and knew that real alternatives were hard to come by during a Great Recession. During my research, I ran across a post about Saipan. I started doing some real research about Saipan but found that there wasn’t a lot of information about it. The most important fact that I learned was that my wife could come here with just a visitor entry permit and that I could change it to an IR permit within 30 days. I realized that it was our best chance and with a window closing by June 1st, it was something that needed to be done right away.

I used to be marginally for federalization of immigration in the CNMI. I can see some good things happening, but I also know how the feds are. Well, federalization is now a reality and will happen whether we like it or not. Unfortunately, now everyone is waiting for the implementation of the federalization and you know what, the devil is in the details.

I think that we are going on a rocky road that is going to hurt a lot of people……

Here is my letter to editor of the Saipan Tribune:

Violating the Covenant

I don’t know what the big deal is about the federal government taking over immigration and labor because even today the federal government can ultimately decide who can work in the CNMI.

It used to be my understanding that the CNMI government was able to decide who could live and work in the CNMI and that these powers were specifically given to the CNMI government through the Covenant with the United States, unless so changed by Congress. Over the last few weeks, I have come to the realization that it is all just smoke and mirrors.

How so? The federal government, through the Social Security Administration, holds the ultimate right of choosing who can live and work in the CNMI through their issuance of social security cards. My wife holds an IR permit issued by the CNMI government and in March went to the local office of the Social Security Administration to apply for a social security card. Because of a change in CNMI immigration regulations effective Jan. 1, the Social Security Administration has stopped issuing social security cards to certain classes of permit holders in the CNMI pending a review of the regulations.

Why do they need to review them? To find out whether or not the person is entitled to work in the CNMI. Never mind that the CNMI immigration has already said that they are. In other words, the Social Security Administration is attempting to be the ones who control who is eligible to work in the CNMI. Call me stupid, but I thought that was the domain of the CNMI government until Nov. 28, 2009.

Without a social security card, my wife is unable to work, even though she holds authorization from the CNMI government. My wife is unable to open a bank account and she is unable to join me on a joint bank account. This is not fair and it seems to me like it’s a violation of the law. My wife, under the law, is eligible for a social security card and it seems like a violation of her civil rights to not be allowed to apply for a social security card.

While the CNMI government is spending millions fighting federalization, why doesn’t someone file a federal lawsuit against the SSA for violating the Covenant and other laws that say that CNMI controls labor until the federal takeover? It seems like this is a pretty overt usurpation of the Covenant relationship.

I used to say that I didn’t have an opinion about federalization, I just believe in the rule of law. One of the great things about living in the USA is that the rule of law is respected. It is frankly disturbing to me that the hypocrites who want all of this federalization are unwilling to follow the rule of law and instead are overtly violating it. If overtly violating the law is what federalization is all about then count me out.

Jack Woods
Chalan Kanoa, Saipan

It’s my fear that this is only the beginning of problems and it’s part of the reason why I went to the May Day Rally this evening to have my say. Federalization can be a good thing, but if they are doing this, it’s hard to get behind things. In fact, I don’t want them to do this if they are going to start doing this.

Ok, there were abuses that happened here in Saipan, but the US Congress passed a law to clean things up. Now is the real issue, they are only half way done with it. They need to follow through and that means they need to do something concerning the status of the local alien worker community. I will be writing more on this later.

Here is an NBC report that I found embedded on the Saipan Blog. It’s certainly worth a watch for anyone wanting to know about one of the greatest maritime treasures that the world has.

We had a two hour power outage last night. I find out after the fact that it was a schedule outage for our area of the island. The CUC(Commonwealth Utilities Commission) needed to replace a brushing or something like that. After the power went off, I woke up. No fans or air con in the tropics can do that to you. It wasn’t bad sitting out on the front porch so I pulled out a chair and sat out there for two hours.

It was lighted thanks to the Post Office lights. See, the USPS Post Office has a generator that kicks in automatically when power goes out. It keeps the lights and air conditioning on and functioning. Yes, the diesel generator kicked in from 1:30 AM until 3:30 AM to ensure that the post office was lighted and air conditioned.

In case you were wondering, no one was at the post office at that hour and the post office generator was belching out smoke. I see no point in having it running at that time. I think it’s a waste of money and a waste of the environment. I understand they may need the lights at night, but a solar power solution would be cheap and effective over the long run.

And there would be no smelling diesel exhaust.

I am glad we made the move to Saipan. Even though the economy here is tough, I do see a lot of opportunities here to make more money. I am currently exploring an opportunity to make and design websites for local Saipan businesses. If this pans out, our stay here could be quite long indeed.

Anyways, going forward, life is good and it’s getting better. I do feel like I am now in the land of opportunity.
One quick note: We are TVless. That means no TV. Long story, but we are trying to do without a TV and see how it works for us as a family. Maybe in another month I can update you….all I know right now is that a new home projector sure is looking good.

Yes, I made the plunge. I moved to a beautiful tropical island paradise to try my hand at this internet business thing full time. I hope that I can be as successful as I know it’s possible to be and I hope that all of you can come along and enjoy the ride.

For now, just check out my Squidoo lensmaster page to see some of the many Squidoo lenses that I am working on right now.