Thread: Panel monitoring RI immigration crackdown to meet

Panel monitoring RI immigration crackdown to meet
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July 13, 2008

PROVIDENCE, R.I.—An advisory panel monitoring Gov. Don Carcieri's executive order cracking down on illegal immigrants meets for the first time Tuesday, more than two months after it was created to appease clergy who criticized Carcieri's order.

The group, chaired by retired Rear Admiral Joseph Strasser, includes clergy, government officials, police and business leaders. The group's first meeting is expected to be largely organizational, especially since key details of Carcieri's order are still being worked out.

Rev. Donald Anderson, executive minister of the Rhode Island State Council of Churches, said he wants the panel to find ways to hear from immigrants about how Carcieri's order is affecting them.

"If they hear of issues, I want to bring them forward," Anderson said.

Carcieri's order, signed in March, requires state agencies and companies doing business with the state to use a federal database called E-Verify to check the citizenship status of new hires. It also requires state police and prison officials to identify illegal immigrants for possible deportation.

State officials have started using E-Verify, but police and prison officials are still negotiating with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for permission to help enforce certain federal immigration laws.

Carcieri's order sparked an angry debate over illegal immigration in Rhode Island.

He agreed to create the advisory panel after meeting in April with religious leaders.

Several clergy members said they feared that E-Verify could keep legal immigrants from getting jobs. A 2007 report commissioned by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security reported that 3 percent of foreign-born workers are erroneously rejected by the database compared to .1 percent of U.S. citizens born here. The report warned that the problem cannot be quickly fixed.

Carcieri has asked local police departments to voluntarily agree to help enforce immigration laws, but Providence's police chief has refused, saying the order could discourage illegal immigrants from contacting police if they are victims or witnesses to a crime.

Last month, Senate lawmakers refused to vote on a bill that would have required private employers to use E-Verify. It had earlier passed in the House.

Lawmakers never voted on even tougher bills. One would have made it a felony to knowingly rent a home to an illegal immigrant. Another would have denied them workers' compensation payments if they were injured on the job.
http://tinyurl.com/67552p

Is it Rhode Island or Vermont that gives it's people free college, still?

All illegal and anchor babies - go back to your legal country, America is not your legal COUNTRY!

I can prove who I am within minutes. Can all the illegals, here, do this proving within minutes? Let's see military ID, military records, one social security number, mother and father names on my birth certificate, driver's license since 15, shot records, doctor's records, school records, grandparents citizenship, as a last resort, at least 1000 people know my family and me.

It would be nice if we - Americans got paid for reporting ILLEGALS?

Governor convenes panel on illegal immigration

on 07-17-2008 02:09


By JIM BARON

PROVIDENCE — Gov. Donald Carcieri convened the 27-member panel he appointed to advise him on the implementation of his executive order on illegal immigration control this week, telling them their mission is to flag any “unintended consequences that might befall people who are in the state legally.

The advisors, drawn from various parts of government, non-profit social agencies, the religious community, law enforcement and the business world are intended to be contact points for members of the immigrant community who have concerns about the executive order or how it is being carried out.
Issued last March, the executive order requires all state departments and agencies, as well as their contractors, subcontractors and vendors, to use the federal E-Verify system to make sure all their employees are eligible to work in the United States. It also calls for the State Police and Department of Corrections to make formal arrangements to work more closely with the federal Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency to deal with illegal immigrants who have committed crimes.
What the members didn’t know is that while they were gathered in the ornate but sweltering State Room Tuesday, State Troopers and federal immigration officials were swooping into six courthouses around the state, arresting more than 30 alleged illegal aliens they say belonged to the maintenance crews at those facilities. Those arrested were not state employees but worked for private contractors.
The judiciary, which employed the contractors, Falcon Maintenance Co. and Tri-State Enterprises notified ICE a month ago about evidence that some of the workers were illegal. That began the investigation.
At the advisory committee meeting, State Police Maj. Steven O’Donnell made it plain that “we aren’t going to turn our backs,â€