A group in the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas says not enough progress is being made on the immigration transition due to end in 2014, after which thousands of foreign workers have to leave the territory.
The Northern Marianas Descent Corporation is also concerned about the recently passed US Senate Immigration Reform Bill, which they say provides a pathway to citizenship to more than 15,000 foreign workers.
A group member and representative on the CNMI Legislature, Felicidad T. Ogumoro, says if you include foreign workers' dependents, they make up at least 23,000 of the island's total population of around 54,000.
She says the CNMI government has to be serious about fulfilling the immigration transition plan and ensuring jobs are available for indigenous people.
"Because of that mandate that says we are going to control that number and by December 2014 the number would phase out, no alien workers should be here by that time so we want to make sure that that mandate it kept."
Felicidad T. Ogumoro says the government needs to start working with the US government to make sure the economy still survives when well over a third of the population leaves.
