Retired Adm. Joseph Strasser speaks to the governor’s advisory panel charged with monitoring illegal immigration.

The Providence Journal / Steve Szydlowski

PROVIDENCE — The chair of a special governor’s advisory panel said he was satisfied that a federal immigration sweep at Rhode Island courthouses was not deliberately timed to coincide with the panel’s first meeting on July 15, without the group’s knowledge.

The panel is monitoring “unintended consequences” of Governor Carcieri’s executive order cracking down on illegal immigrants, issued in March.

“It was an unfortunate coincidence, but it was a coincidence,” said the chairman, Retired Adm. Joseph Strasser. “I would not stand here and look you in the eye if I did not believe that.” Strasser said the governor “did know a little bit, but he didn’t know about it very much ahead of time, and for him to say anything would be inappropriate.”

He urged the group to accept that and move forward. He also urged members not to resign in protest, as at least one member has done.

During the courthouse sweeps, federal agents arrested 31 maintenance workers who worked for two state contractors. The detainees face civil violations of being in the country illegally. The federal criminal investigation that led to those arrests is continuing.

Strasser said he also knew there had been “some talk about resignations,” which he called “unfortunate.” He said if people leave the committee, then their constituencies don’t get represented … “We’re here to educate, listen, monitor and report any unintended consequences that result from the governor’s executive order, and if we don’t do that, I don’t know who will.”

Bruno Sukys, director of the International Institute of Rhode Island’s Feinstein Center, told The Journal on Thursday that he was resigning in protest from the 27-member panel and did not attend yesterday. It was unclear yesterday whether anyone else had resigned.

Two weeks of controversy — both public and behind the scenes — led the advisory panel to convene yesterday’s special meeting.

The timing issue topped the agenda, but members underscored that the governor’s executive order and the courthouse arrests have heightened fears throughout the immigrant community — among legal and undocumented residents alike.

“We’re seeing as one of the consequences, that people being afraid to bring their children in” for medical care, said Merrill R. Thomas, director of Providence Community Health Centers. “They’re afraid we think … that the governor’s actions require us to turn their names in.”

State Police Maj. Steven O’Donnell said panel members were not alerted of the courthouse sweeps on July 15 for safety and security reasons, and the fact that the “enforcement action” stems from an ongoing criminal investigation. He said, “We don’t brief people on law enforcement operations … If it leaks out there could be serious consequences.”

O’Donnell clarified that state police assisted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the sweeps and in the surrounding criminal investigation, and it is their role when called upon. “This was their criminal investigation, with our assistance,” he said. “ICE contacted us and asked us for our assistance,” with a criminal investigation into possible ID fraud and identity theft.”

He reiterated that state police “do not go seeking” to arrest undocumented immigrants, “but if state police clearly come across someone who is here illegally, however we come upon that, we are not going to turn our backs.” He said not to do so would be to ignore the law.

O’Donnell also took exception to the term “raid,” to describe the events at the courthouse.

“Our definition comprises ‘a dynamic entry into a building or a place, where we force our way in with a court order … We don’t consider something like this as a raid.” He used the terms, “law enforcement operation,” and “enforcement action.”

Rabbi Alan Flam asked that the group stop using the term “illegal immigrant,” and use “undocumented resident” instead. He called the term “illegal immigrant” “incendiary language that erodes the trust people have,” adding that “as a religious person, the idea that a human being is seen as illegal is offensive to me — no human being is illegal.”

Flam said, “Obviously we can’t tell public officials and elected official private citizens what words to use, but I would strongly urge this committee be recommending to the governor and any other public officials talking about this issue use the language of undocumented residents of Rhode Island in formal communication and hopefully verbal communication as well.”

Panel members agreed to try to allay fears by sending a five-member subcommittee “into the community” to listen for concerns and unintended consequences rather than wait for them to be brought forward. Co-chair Deborah A. Smith of the Governor’s Office of External Affairs said an op-ed piece is in the works, and they will ask an ICE representative to attend their next meeting to address humanitarian concerns about how the arrests were handled; the rights of detainees in the aftermath; and ICE policy.

kziner@projo.com