After President Trump signed U.S. Public Law 116-24, which provides permanent Marianas-only resident status to as many as 1,039 people living in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that humanitarian parole in the CNMI would be automatically extended through Oct. 28, 2019.
CNMI Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan introduced the Northern Mariana Islands Long-Term Legal Residents Relief Act in response to the decision to end the parole program for certain categories of individuals in the Marianas.
The affected parolees include spouses and parents of U.S. citizens, in-home caregivers, persons born in the Marianas before the Covenant citizenship provisions went into effect, and persons who had been given permanent resident status under Commonwealth law in the early 1980s.
Now that the law is in place, USCIS said employment authorization is also extended so parolees can continue to work in the Commonwealth. Under the law, parolees may apply for a re-parole, which may be granted on a case-by-case basis up to June 29, 2020.
The USCIS made the announcement on Friday, the day that parolees were required to leave, and just three days after President Trump signed the bill into law.
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