SAIPAN — Congresswoman Kimberlyn King-Hinds has written to the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services warning that processing failures in the renewal of Employment Authorization Documents for CNMI Long-Term Residents could affect as many as 10 percent of the Commonwealth’s workforce in the coming months.
In a March 30 letter to USCIS Director Joseph B. Edlow, King-Hinds said her office has received hundreds of privacy release forms from individuals who have made good-faith efforts to comply with program requirements but have encountered repeated difficulties obtaining or renewing the documentation needed to maintain employment in the CNMI.
King-Hinds said applications have been rejected, returned or non-receipted, often erroneously or without clear justification, and in some cases multiple times. The result, she said, is that individuals who are lawfully present and legally authorized to work are being pushed out of the workforce by administrative disruption alone.
“The practical effect is that individuals who remain lawfully present and authorized to work in the CNMI are being sidelined from the workforce due solely to administrative disruption,” King-Hinds wrote. “Given the scale of this population within the CNMI labor market, the consequences are immediate and systemic, affecting private sector operations, public services, and overall economic stability.”
CNMI Long-Term Resident status was established under the Northern Mariana Islands Long-Term Legal Residents Relief Act, signed by President Trump on June 25, 2019. The statute covers foreign nationals who have resided continuously and lawfully in the CNMI since November 28, 2009, and grants employment authorization as incident to status rather than as a separate benefit. King-Hinds argued that EAD processing delays are effectively negating a right that already exists under federal law.
King-Hinds asked USCIS to implement automatic extensions of employment authorization for Long-Term Residents with timely filed EAD renewal applications, provide clear and consistent guidance on intake and adjudication of renewal applications including fee handling and receipt issuance, and establish an expedited adjudication process with a dedicated processing track for CNMI Long-Term Resident EAD renewals.
King-Hinds said she is prepared to provide USCIS with the full collection of cases her office has submitted on behalf of affected individuals to assist in identifying and resolving the underlying issues.
