Carcieri

PROVIDENCE — Here in the smallest state, one of the nation’s biggest issues drew two top elected leaders into a personal, politically charged debate about illegal immigration this week.

The exchange, between Republican Governor Carcieri and Democratic Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline, was prompted by the arrest of Marco Riz, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala who has been living in Providence. Riz, 26, is charged with kidnapping a 30-year-old woman on June 8 outside a Warwick supermarket and raping her in Roger Williams Park in Providence.

A federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman criticized the Providence police for not checking on Riz’s immigration status when they arrested him twice last year. But the Providence police said they notified the local ICE office about Riz’s arrests and the federal agency never took the action needed to ship him back to Guatemala.

Carcieri entered the fray Monday. In a news release, the governor “decried the City of Providence’s continued refusal to work with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to prevent illegal immigrants from committing reprehensible crimes against Rhode Island citizens.”

The governor, who cannot seek a third term, called the Riz case “a sad but vivid example” of why he issued an executive order in March requiring state agencies and vendors to use a federal database to verify the immigration status of new employees. It also requires state police and prison officials to identify illegal immigrants for possible deportation. Carcieri asked local police departments to take similar steps, but Providence Police Chief Dean Esserman refused.

“I have said from the beginning that the main reason for issuing my executive order is to get criminal aliens off the street,” Carcieri said. “This is a serious public safety issue and it’s inexcusable that the mayor of Providence and the police chief would rather work on community relationship building than on protecting the public from criminals.”

Cicilline, seen as a top Democratic contender to run for governor in 2010, fired back, saying, “It is disgraceful that the governor of the state would willfully distort the position of the Providence Police Department, undermining the work of these brave men and women and effectively accusing them of being accomplices to the actions of a criminal.”

The mayor said, “It is outrageous to blame police officers for the failures of our federal immigration agencies in a desperate attempt to defend the Bush administration.”

On Tuesday, while appearing with John DePetro on WPRO-AM radio, Carcieri said, “If it were a family member of his somewhere that were, you know, had what happened to that woman, [Cicilline] might view it differently.” The mayor later told reporters, “I think it is disgraceful that the governor would inject my sister into this public conversation.”

In an interview yesterday, Carcieri said he issued Monday’s news release because Cicilline’s office had criticized ICE. “You don’t trash an agency that’s responsible for protecting us and is offering to help you,” he said.

“I’m only on one topic: public safety, apprehending illegal immigrants who are committing crime,” Carcieri said. “We need everyone to work together, not trashing people because you don’t want to help or don’t want to be involved. We need Providence to be part of this solution.”

For more than 20 years, Providence police have faxed ICE a list of suspects scheduled to be arraigned in District Court on criminal charges. ICE recently said that system is not efficient, and Carcieri called for the Providence police to make more frequent use of a computerized system for having ICE check on the immigration status of criminal suspects. He said the state police use the computerized system “all the time now.”

Carcieri said he’s speaking out because illegal immigration is “a big cost, in my view, to the taxpayer. I feel strongly about it because I know the impact it’s having.” He said, “I am not advocating for going out and rounding up people. We need the Providence police to work in cooperation with ICE and the state police and use that database.”

A national backlog is expected to significantly delay a key component of Carcieri’s executive order — deputizing state troopers and corrections officers with immigration enforcement powers. Until troopers and corrections officers go through an ICE training program and obtain new technology, they will not be able to tap directly into an ICE database that determines whether a suspect is in the country illegally. For now, they must do so indirectly.

Cicilline issued a statement yesterday, saying, “As the mayor of this city, my primary responsibility is to ensure the safety of our residents, and I am proud of the work the men and women of the Providence Police Department have done to achieve the lowest crime rate in three decades.”

“Let me be clear,” Cicilline said, “anyone who is in this country illegally and breaks the law should be deported. That’s why Providence police will continue its longstanding policy of providing federal immigration officials with information anytime a person is charged with a crime in this city.”

That policy was followed when Riz was arrested last year, he said. “However, ICE failed to act,” Cicilline said. “ICE has known about Mr. Riz since 2003 when he was arrested by East Providence police. In fact, federal officials even went as far as issuing a deportation order against Riz, but never followed through with deportation.”

In a recent interview, Esserman said the public has gotten the wrong impression that the state’s largest city is a “sanctuary” for illegal immigrants. He said that suspected criminals — who are here legally or illegally — are all treated the same. They are apprehended, charged and go through the judicial system.

In 2004, the Providence police were involved in a crackdown on members of MS-13, a violent street gang predominately comprised of illegal immigrants from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Mexico. The Providence police worked closely with ICE and had more than 50 gang members deported between 2004 and 2006. In some cases, the gang members were picked up on minor charges, but shipped out of the country because the police had inside knowledge that they were heavily involved in gang violence. The police said two of them were murdered when they returned to Guatemala.

Providence police officials said they refuse to stop and check on the immigration status of law-abiding immigrants working on landscaping, painting or roofing crews. Deputy Police Chief Paul J. Kennedy said the department’s 500 officers have to focus on fighting crime. “It’s not our job to go out and check on people’s immigration status,” he said in a recent interview.

The police said they faxed ICE the information when Riz was arrested last year for drunken driving and for allegedly striking another man. In 2003, a federal immigration court ordered Riz deported, but the court released him and he continued to live in Providence. The police say nothing in Riz’s criminal history suggested he’d commit a serious violent crime such as the alleged abduction and rape. The police say they’re now reviewing their current system of notifying ICE about detainees who may be illegal immigrants.

efitzpat@projo.com