Governor Carcieri, in front, Bishop Thomas J. Tobin, Rabbi Alan Flam and the Rev. Donald C. Anderson emerge from the governor’s office after their meeting yesterday.

The Providence Journal / Mary Murphy

PROVIDENCE — Seeking to allay fears, Governor Carcieri yesterday pledged to form an advisory group to track implementation of his controversial executive order on immigration. He announced the pledge after meeting with the Most Rev. Thomas J. Tobin, leader of Rhode Island Roman Catholics, Rabbi Alan Flam, president of the Rhode Island Board of Rabbis, and the Rev. Donald Anderson of the Rhode Island Council of Churches.

Carcieri said the advisory group will meet “every three months as we go forward, just to get some feedback on what are the concerns.” It will include clergy, but its full composition has not been determined.

“There’s been a lot of concern about how this will be implemented, and we said we’re going to watch this very carefully as we go forward,” said Carcieri. “There’s no intention to hurt anybody unduly, and particularly people who are here legally.”

The governor invited the three religious leaders to the State House after they joined dozens of other clergy at a public protest last month over the executive order, aimed at curbing illegal immigration.

At that protest — one of many sparked by Carcieri’s edict — Rabbi Flam denounced the order as “a top-down, poorly conceived” policy that promised “discrimination against people of color and immigrants in Rhode Island.”

The order in part calls for enforcement of federal immigration laws by the state police and corrections department staff, and use of an E-verify electronic system to ensure legal work status of executive branch employees and workers hired by state vendors.

Rabbi Flam said that during yesterday’s closed-door meeting, he again asked Carcieri “to reconsider” the order, but Carcieri stood firm.

Flam said, “I don’t agree with the executive order, but we agreed to disagree, and it was done amicably.” But Flam said he believes the meeting established a working relationship.

“We want to say as religious leaders, how can we work with public officials to see that people in our community are not afraid? That they are not afraid to go to work, to apply for jobs, or to live their lives as every other person in Rhode Island wants to do? That’s our concern, that’s the governor’s concern, and we’re all going to work to hopefully see that happen.”

Mr. Anderson spoke to the backlash the order has caused.

“I grew up here. I love Rhode Island, and I think that this ought to be a place where people of differing backgrounds and cultures and races are all welcome,” said Anderson. “And right now, if you talk to a lot of people they don’t feel welcome, whether they’re legal or not, and I think that it’s important that we all work together to let people know that this is a place, and Rhode Island is a place, that loves diversity, and we want to affirm that.”

Carcieri said the discussion focused on the E-verify system — a system he acknowledged yesterday is flawed — and racial profiling concerns over giving state police powers to enforce federal immigration laws.

“As you all know, E-verify is not perfect, it’s got an 8-percent error rate,” the governor said. “And Reverend Anderson has indicated that for naturalized citizens it’s even higher. We don’t want people that are here legally to be disadvantaged in any way. We’ve got to be sensitive to that.” He said he will consult with other states that are already using the system “to learn a little about what their experience is.”

The governor said he believes state police “are very conscious” of racial-profiling concerns, “and I think, by and large, they do a great job at avoiding that.” He said state police and correctional workers will receive training by immigration authorities before the edict goes into effect, and “we’ll be watching carefully” to ensure they remain sensitive to those issues.

The governor repeated his rationale for the order — that he is stepping in where the federal government has to date failed.

“I felt we needed to deal with it. Other states are doing it, we’re not alone, and hopefully as more states deal with it and do the kinds of things we’re doing, that between the federal government, our senators and representatives, we’ll get something done.”

Asked why he had not discussed the order with community groups before he issued it, the governor replied, “You’re going to get fears, unfortunately, with anything like this,” and “in some cases, if you’re here illegally, if you came here illegally, I can’t take away the fear.”

He said, “It’s going to take time before people to understand that if you’re here legally, with proper documentation, you have nothing to fear whatsoever.”

Bishop Tobin called the meeting “very productive and frank and informative.”

“We’re grateful for the governor’s time and also his pledge to monitor this situation very carefully to be sure that no one gets hurt that shouldn’t be hurt [and] that there are no unintended circumstances, and we’re very grateful for the governor’s suggestion that we would form this advisory commission precisely to do that to keep the communication going to make sure there are no unintended consequences.”

kziner@projo.com