Thread: Dem. Legislator Files Arizona-Like Immigration Bill in R I

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Dem. Legislator Files Arizona-Like Immigration Bill in Rhode Island

A Democratic state legislator in Rhode Island has filed a bill similar to the immigration law recently enacted in Arizona. As reported by The Providence Journal:

State Rep. Peter Palumbo, D-District 16, Cranston, has filed a bill that largely copies a controversial Arizona law considered the toughest immigration legislation in the country.

Palumbo's bill, like the Arizona law, makes failure to carry alien registration cards a state crime, and requires police to question people "where reasonable suspicion exists" that the person is unlawfully in the United States.

The bill, H 8142, filed Tuesday, also targets people who hire illegal immigrants, or who knowingly transport them.

The legislation is not solely a reaction to the Arizona law, as Palumbo has introduced similar legislation previously focusing more on cooperation with the federal government.

In a press release issued in March regarding a prior version of the law, Palumbo stressed the burdens illegal aliens place on state resources:

The “Rhode Island Taxpayer and Citizens Protection Act,â€

You Go R.I. and all are Dems except one repub who have co-sponsored this Bill.Looks like it may very well pass.