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Carcieri stands by immigration order at last panel session
1:29 PM Tue, Sep 01, 2009 | Permalink
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Governor Carcieri's advisory panel monitoring his 2008 executive order on illegal immigration met for the last time Tuesday, with Carcieri reiterating that the issue "was a tough one, a complicated one," but one that he had no regrets about tackling.
"What I'm trying to do in a measured, limited way, is to begin to deal with an issue that has an enormous impact on our state and our nation, and awaken our federal legislators that something's gotta be done," the governor said.
The order directed Rhode Island State Police and corrections authorities to forge agreements with the federal government that would give them some limited immigration-law enforcement powers, and called for state executive departments to screen potential employees through a federal E-Verify system to determine their work eligibility. It also called for state vendors to use the E-Verify system.
A report the panel issued in January said the order had created "an overriding sense of fear" among all immigrants -- whether legal and undocumented. Among its recommendations were that Carcieri clarify the intent of his order, and that the state determine its costs.
Carcieri said he knew that some people had labeled him as "anti-immigrant" after issuing the order, but "nothing could be farther from the truth."
One member, Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas J. Tobin, said the panel "served a very important role" by "diffusing a very volatile situation a year and a half ago" when Carcieri issued his order..
But the head of the Providence Diocese added, "I still personally believe that the executive order was a mistake, and I still can't think of one good thing the executive order has done for this state. The only thing was to create divisions which were not helpful, and that raised the rhetoric" about illegal immigration.
Carcieri said his intent was to effect "process and procedure" of determining how many illegal immigrants were in state custody, and expediting their transfer to federal immigration custody rather than put them back into the community. And, a so-called 287(g) agreement would give state police to access ICE data bases.
The intent "was never for state police nor local law enforcement to conduct raids," said Carcieri, but noted the "unfortunate" timing of a federal raid of state courthouses as the panel met for the first time last year. Carcieri reiterated that he had no prior knowledge of the raid.
Carcieri said state police have been "grossly unfairly been painted by people with an agenda" to have engaged in racial profiling, and expressed confidence in that agency.
He said that over time, the public would see that neither state police nor local law-enforcement agencies will use the executive order to engage in immigration raids.
He also said he believed that requiring state executive departments to use E-Verify system is a prudent one, and noted "the current (Obama) administration has chosen to go forward to use that system."
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1:29 PM Tue, Sep 01, 2009 | Permalink
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Governor Carcieri's advisory panel monitoring his 2008 executive order on illegal immigration met for the last time Tuesday, with Carcieri reiterating that the issue "was a tough one, a complicated one," but one that he had no regrets about tackling.
"What I'm trying to do in a measured, limited way, is to begin to deal with an issue that has an enormous impact on our state and our nation, and awaken our federal legislators that something's gotta be done," the governor said.
The order directed Rhode Island State Police and corrections authorities to forge agreements with the federal government that would give them some limited immigration-law enforcement powers, and called for state executive departments to screen potential employees through a federal E-Verify system to determine their work eligibility. It also called for state vendors to use the E-Verify system.
A report the panel issued in January said the order had created "an overriding sense of fear" among all immigrants -- whether legal and undocumented. Among its recommendations were that Carcieri clarify the intent of his order, and that the state determine its costs.
Carcieri said he knew that some people had labeled him as "anti-immigrant" after issuing the order, but "nothing could be farther from the truth."
One member, Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas J. Tobin, said the panel "served a very important role" by "diffusing a very volatile situation a year and a half ago" when Carcieri issued his order..
But the head of the Providence Diocese added, "I still personally believe that the executive order was a mistake, and I still can't think of one good thing the executive order has done for this state. The only thing was to create divisions which were not helpful, and that raised the rhetoric" about illegal immigration.
Carcieri said his intent was to effect "process and procedure" of determining how many illegal immigrants were in state custody, and expediting their transfer to federal immigration custody rather than put them back into the community. And, a so-called 287(g) agreement would give state police to access ICE data bases.
The intent "was never for state police nor local law enforcement to conduct raids," said Carcieri, but noted the "unfortunate" timing of a federal raid of state courthouses as the panel met for the first time last year. Carcieri reiterated that he had no prior knowledge of the raid.
Carcieri said state police have been "grossly unfairly been painted by people with an agenda" to have engaged in racial profiling, and expressed confidence in that agency.
He said that over time, the public would see that neither state police nor local law-enforcement agencies will use the executive order to engage in immigration raids.
He also said he believed that requiring state executive departments to use E-Verify system is a prudent one, and noted "the current (Obama) administration has chosen to go forward to use that system."
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