Immigration protection extended to workers in Northern Marianas

Published: 2008-05-13

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Human traffickers were dealt a blow May 8 when President George W. Bush signed a law that extends U.S. immigration law protections to workers in the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands. An advocate for the workers told Catholic News Service that with the protections immigrants from China and other Asian countries will be less likely to become victims of fraud when they are recruited to work in the U.S. commonwealth, which is a group of 15 small islands about three-quarters of the way from Hawaii to the Philippines just north of Guam. Good Shepherd Sister Carol McClenon, interim national coordinator of the National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, said a provision of the Consolidated Natural Resources Act will reduce the likelihood that workers will end up in prostitution or in other abusive work situations. Sister Carol, who returned to the U.S. last summer after working for four years at a domestic violence shelter in the commonwealth, said the difficulty stemmed from unscrupulous employers who recruit workers for one type of work only to force them into another setting.

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