Failure to cooperate

01:00 AM EDT on Friday, June 27, 2008

The Providence Police Department failed to protect the public adequately when it twice arrested a man, on charges of drunken driving and domestic assault, and did not follow the procedure recommended by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. That man, Marco Riz, an alleged illegal immigrant from Guatemala, was allowed back into the community instead of being deported. He is now charged with taking a 30-year-old woman from a Warwick supermarket parking lot and raping her at knifepoint at Roger Williams Park.

A spokesman for ICE contends that Providence police should have used the agency’s telecommunications system to check on Mr. Riz’s status. He is right.

Police Chief Dean Esserman insists that his force did its job. He notes that, for 20 years, the police department has faxed to immigration officials a list of suspects scheduled to be arraigned in district court. ICE contends that such faxes are not helpful, and that the agency has told that to the police.

What police should do is use the ICE system. According to an ICE spokesman, that rarely happens. Providence police checked on the status of only two people since Oct. 1. Over the same period, he said, there have been about 350 requests statewide, mostly from state police and other agencies.

It is an unhappy fact that New England’s second-largest city, one with many illegal immigrants, is failing to effectively pursue the immigration status of prisoners or suspects.

Mayor Cicilline and Chief Esserman have publicly opposed Governor Carcieri’s executive order asking local police to check the immigration status of people being detained or investigated for a crime, even though the Rhode Island Police Chiefs Association overwhelmingly endorsed the idea.

“I am opposed to a proactive role because of the chilling effect it would have on our being able to have people have trust in us and to report crimes,â€