USA Green Card Immigration Blog

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has made a proclamation stating that a parole-in-place status will be granted to specific foreign nationals in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). This interim status is made available to those foreign nationals who do not posses umbrella permits and whose work permits lapse before they can claim the new visa categories under the federal immigration laws.

Some employers and their foreign national employees had intended to apply for CNMI-Only Transitional Worker visas soon after the Nov. 2009 when the transition period began. Subsequently they also did not apply for the umbrella permits that cover the two year transition period.

However, the nonimmigrant category was made unavailable by a court ruling that month. Since there existed a gap between the expiry of the present CNMI work permit and the new CNMI-Only Transitional Worker status, few foreign nationals faced the risk of loss of their legal immigration status.

The same problem was faced by foreign nationals with CNMI Investor permits also. There has been a gap between the expiry of the CNMI investor permit and the new CNMI-Only E-2 Investor status.

Commencing from November 28, 2009, nearly all provisions of the federal immigration law have been extended to the CNMI by the Consolidated Natural Resources Act of 2008 (CNRA.) Foreign nationals in the CNMI were considered to be present in the United States and put through federal immigration law as of Nov. 28, 2009.

The Consolidated Natural Resources Act has been put into effect by the USCIS in view of implementing the Congressional intent. The USCIS will thereby take initiatives to reduce inimical economic effects on the CNMI and promote economic and business growth in the CNMI in the future.

Immigrant applicants who want to apply for parole-in-place are obliged to submit a filled G-325 (Biographic Information), 3 passport-style photos, a copy of the unexpired entry permit, a copy of the photo page of their valid passport, a statement from their employer that they will have continued employment.

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New Curbs Set on Arrests of Illegal Immigrants – WSJ.com

On July 10 the Department of Homeland Security set new guidelines to reduce the ability of local law enforcement to arrest and screen suspected illegal immigrants.  The program, known as 287g, was meant to allow easier identification of aliens with criminal backgrounds, but its opponents insisted that it was being used for racial profiling instead.  In the past two years, over 120,000 suspected illegal immigrants were identified through 287g.