Fil-Am groups call on Aquino to stop deportation of 12,000 Filipinos in Mariana Islands

Fil-Am groups call on Aquino to stop deportation of 12,000 Filipinos in Mariana Islands

By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
Bulatlat.com
The National Alliance for Filipino Concerns (NAFCON) is calling on President Benigno Aquino III to assist more than 12,000 Filipinos who stand to be deported from the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) this year.

The CNMI is located in the western Pacific Ocean.Based on previous US census counts, Filipinos comprise almost 30 percent of all residents in the islands, surpassing even the total number of the native Chamorro people. There are an estimated 12,000 Filipino workers in CNMI who are now being threatened with deportation despite maintaining legal immigration status.

According to Nafcon spokesperson Rico Foz, most of Filipinos in CNMI were forced out of the Philippines 10 to 30 years ago because of the lack of jobs.

“They were critical in developing CNMI’s economy and it is now their home and the only home their children have known,” he said.

A Filipino worker in CNMI Maria Lourdes Berueco said many of them have lived in CMNI most of their lives and have families there.

“Many of us are anxious about returning to the Philippines because we don’t have anything or anyone to go back to anymore.”

The CNMI’s establishment as a US Commonwealth

In 1976, US President Gerald Ford signed into law the Covenant establishing CNMI as a US Commonwealth having its own constitution and government. As such, the CNMI government had exclusive control over its labor and immigration laws, allowing it to bring in contract guest workers through the enactment of the Nonresident Workers’ Act (NWA) in 1983.

CNMI’s efforts at economy building were centered on the development of a garment industry as well as tourism sector in the late 1980s and 1990s. The practice of recruiting overseas contract workers increased its population to nearly 40,000, with the newly immigrated workers becoming employed in all the growing industries..... MORE

Source:  Bulatlat.com

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2012/02/02/fil-am-groups-call-on-aquino-to-stop-deportation-of-12000-filipinos-in-mariana-islands/