Saipan, CNMI Photo: Supplied
The Commonwealth Utilities Corporation in the Northern Marianas is suing Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Charles Johnson and other Federal officials for the delay in renewing the CUC's Commonwealth-only worker permits.
The utilities company has also asked the Federal court to issue a temporary restraining order that would allow the workers to immediately return to work, the CUC employs a total of 19 Commonwealth-only workers.
The CUC says the affected foreign workers are specialists with experience in the type of massive power generation engines that it uses to generate power.
It added the continued absence of these workers will result in a direct deterioration of service to the utility's customers and the general public of the CNMI.
Aside from Mr Johnson, other defendants in the lawsuit are Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Saarah Saldana and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Leon Rodriguez.