PROVIDENCE -- Nationwide anti-immigrant attitudes are "broad-brush" stereotypes that do "a disservice to the Constitution," Rep. James Langevin said yesterday as he visited the state's largest immigration agency.

The hot-button issue of immigration reform was on the table, so to speak, as Langevin joined the International Institute of Rhode Island's staff members for pasta and meatballs.

The Democratic congressman also toured the Elmwood Avenue facility, which provides refugee resettlement, legal aid, English classes, job training and placement and citizenship classes to thousands of immigrants and refugees every year.

Langevin concurred with staff members that anti-immigrant attitudes are harmful and divisive.

"I'm as concerned as all of you are that we don't paint everyone with one broad brush," particularly through the notion "that everyone who is not nationally born here is bad. I'm trying to lend my voice to dispel those ideas or tone down the rhetoric," Langevin said.

"I also believe that the majority of people who are coming here illegally" or are already here illegally "are trying to help their families or themselves and they are not terrorists," Langevin said.

"It's wrong, it's unfair and it does a disservice to the Constitution" to depict all immigrants as drains on society, he said.

Langevin stated his support -- shared by his Rhode Island congressional colleagues -- for balanced and comprehensive immigration reform.

Langevin noted that he voted against the Sensenbrenner bill that passed last fall. That legislation would make it a criminal offense to enter or be in the country illegally (it is currently a civil offense), calls for 700 miles of security fencing along the southern border and for extending broad powers to state and municipal law enforcement to enforce immigration laws.

Langevin said he favors the McCain-Kennedy Senate bill, and its House counterpart, the Kolbe-Flake-Gutierrez bill.

Those bills call for eliminating a backlog of people trying to legally immigrate to the U.S., would create and support employer verification of documented workers, create resources for stronger border security, and "at the same time, put the 8 to 12 million people who are here without documents on a path to citizenship," he said.

But Langevin said he is not optimistic that a compromise bill will pass before the current Congress ends in four weeks or before the November elections.

Some staff members raised concerns about state or local police attempts to enforce immigration law, in particular a traffic stop July 11 by a state trooper that ended with 14 illegal immigrants being detained for deportation.

The trooper stopped the driver for failing to signal a lane change, then demanded immigration documents from the occupants. The state police are undertaking an investigation, based on a complaint brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island on behalf of the occupants.

"Obviously we're concerned about the zeal on the part of police officers, thinking they can enforce immigration law," said William Shuey, executive director of the institute.

Langevin said he feared that the extending immigration enforcement powers to local and state police, as proposed in the Sensenbrenner bill, "will place an undue burden on local law enforcement who aren't trained" to enforce those laws and will deter immigrants from reporting real crimes against themselves or others.

On other issues raised by staff at the institute, Langevin said has opposed the Iraq war and called it "a mistake from the beginning."

He also said he is "very troubled" by the amount of domestic surveillance being conducted without previous court order, in the name of homeland security.

President Bush "has obviously overstepped his bounds," Langevin said, and predicted that the Bush administration "will lose on the challenge" of a recent federal court ruling that its domestic surveillance program is unconstitutional.

Langevin greeted many recent refugees and immigrants at the institute.

Rwandan refugee Maria Mukabahzi told Langevin she was grateful to America and the institute for helping her resettle in this country one month ago.

Speaking in Burundi, translated by her son, Mukabahzi said she has "a dream of getting an education."

Langevin told her, "You came to the right place. A lot of people want to help you."

kziner@projo.com / (401) 277-7375