Opposing immigration bills filed in RI

Opposing immigration bills filed

01:00 AM EST on Tuesday, February 8, 2011

By Karen Lee Ziner

Journal Staff Writer

Palumbo

PROVIDENCE — State Rep. Peter Palumbo’s bill to restore former Gov. Donald L. Carcieri’s 2008 illegal-immigration executive order is scheduled for a hearing Tuesday. The House Labor Committee will take up the bill at the rise of the House.

Governor Chafee honored a campaign promise by rescinding the controversial executive order bill less than 24 hours after he was sworn in. At a public ceremony, Chafee called the edict “an agent of divisiveness, incivility and distrust among the state’s citizens.” The order touched off protests and spread fear in the immigrant community.

Palumbo’s bill is one of a few major immigration-related bills filed to date.

The Cranston Democrat said he still intends to file “Arizona-style” legislation mimicking a controversial law in that state, considered the most restrictive such legislation of its kind.

It would give the police broader authority to check a person’s immigration status. Palumbo has signaled his intention to file it several times since January.

“Oh that bill’s definitely going in,” Palumbo said. “It’s going to give me a second bite at the apple.”

State Rep. Grace Diaz, D-Providence, is re-introducing the Student Equal Economic Opportunity Act that would exempt undocumented immigrant students from paying non-resident tuition at Rhode Island colleges or universities, provided they have met certain requirements, including attending a Rhode Island high school for at least three years, as well as graduating from a Rhode Island high school or obtaining a GED in this state.

Diaz has also filed a bill to prevent the state, or cities or towns, from requiring employers to use an electronic verification system, E-Verify, to qualify for a government contract or apply for or maintain a business license. It opposes an aspect of Carcieri’s former executive order that Palumbo is trying to restore.

Palumbo’s Control of Illegal Immigration, legislation is often misidentified as the “E-Verify bill,” as was Carcieri’s executive order.

The bill requires the state Administration Department to screen new hires through the E-Verify program to determine whether they are legally eligible to work. It also demands that state vendors register with and use E-Verify.

But the order also asks state police to forge a partnership with federal immigration authorities through the program known bureaucratically as “287(g).”

Four Rhode Island troopers were cross-deputized as immigration agents of limited authority, through that partnership with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The program was dismantled when Chafee rescinded the order.

Palumbo said E-Verify is a very small portion of Carcieri’s order and his bill. “The most important part is the 287(g); it gives law enforcement another leg up to go after illegals.” He added, “It’s such a shame, right now, to let this go. The officers are trained. They’ve been trained by the feds.”

State Rep. Joseph A. Trillo, R-Warwick, one of four cosponsors of Palumbo’s bill, said, “I think we have a significant problem with illegal immigrants in the country, and I think we have an even bigger problem in Rhode Island. We haven’t tightened our laws. … We don’t need to be a magnet for them. We can’t afford them.”

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