About 50 protesters try to crowd into Governor Carcieri’s policy office to demand that he rescind his executive order on illegal immigrants. Capitol Police escorted the protesters to outside the State House. Providence Journal photo / Connie Grosch

PROVIDENCE

A State House protest yesterday nearly turned violent when dozens of protesters stormed the governor’s policy office demanding that the chief executive rescind last week’s executive order to crack down on illegal immigration.

An estimated 75 people chanting in Spanish and wielding signs that read “No human is illegal” gathered in the State House rotunda yesterday afternoon just as lawmakers were filing into the House and Senate.

The crowd soon moved down the marble hallway to the governor’s policy office (the governor occupies a separate office on a different floor) and began filing in.

Roughly 50 rowdy protesters filled the office and adjacent conference room, chanting, “El pueblo unido no sera vencido!” (“a people united will not be defeated”) before a Capitol Police officer blocked the entrance.

More officers soon entered the room from a separate entrance and forced the door shut as more protesters tried to push through.

“This is a private office,” the officers screamed as one of the protesters, Providence City Councilman Miguel Luna, shouted back, “This is an office of the governor.”

The protest had no clear sponsor, although the leader of the activist group Direct Action for Rights and Equality was among those coordinating the activities.

The protesters left the office voluntarily, but only after a few tense moments in which officers nearly clashed with the rowdy group, which was chanting loudly nearly the entire time. At least six officers then forced the protesters out of the State House.

No one was arrested in the incident and there were no injuries reported.

Luna blamed Governor Carcieri for the incident.

“When you have the top clergy in the state of Rhode Island and they can’t get through to him, this is the only option left,” he said, referring to calls of the state’s religious community that the governor reconsider his recent executive order.

The order requires state agencies and vendors to verify the legal status of all employees and directs the state police and Department of Corrections to work with federal immigration authorities to help enforce immigration laws.

“We never stop anyone from exercising their rights here, but these people acted disorderly, they stormed our office, refused to leave, one of them almost laid hands on one of my officers. We’re just not going to tolerate this behavior here,” said Sgt. Joseph Habershaw of the Capitol Police, explaining his decision to force the protesters out of the building.

The executive director of DARE, Sara Mersha, characterized the incident as a “nonviolent protest.”

“We’re not going to allow the governor to continue terrorizing our families and our communities,” she said. “We wanted to speak with the governor’s policy director … We just wanted an answer.”

Last night, Carcieri appeared on CNN’s Lou Dobbs Tonight program.

Dobbs, an outspoken opponent of illegal immigration who talks about the country’s “broken borders,” asked Carcieri why the executive order was necessary.

“Well, frankly, because Congress isn’t acting,” Carcieri replied. “At the end of the day, the states and governors around the country are bearing the burden, and our citizens — hard-working citizens — are bearing the burden. We are seeing it in our hospitals. We are seeing it in our schools. We are seeing it in our prisons. We are seeing it in all the social service agencies.”

“The reason I’m here tonight — because I know this is an issue you care about — is we got to get that message to Congress,” Carcieri said. “They need to act and move on this.”

Dobbs said, “Well, maybe you can say that again because you know that the amnesty advocates — open borders advocates supporting illegal immigration — say there is no cost as a result of social services, medical services, education, incarceration for illegal aliens and that they are a net benefit to our society.”

“Well, I think they are entirely wrong,” Carcieri said. “When I look at our little state, when I see what’s happening in our schools and the influx in our schools, and our hospitals, our law enforcement, it’s crystal clear the impact that illegal immigration is having, and we need to deal with that. And if Congress isn’t going to act, I feel as a governor I’m responsible for enacting and following the laws of our state and our nation.”

Dobbs noted more than 40 religious leaders in Rhode Island on Wednesday criticized Carcieri’s executive order, and he said Rabbi Alan Flam, president of Rhode Island’s Board of Rabbis, sent his program a statement saying, “These are clearly challenging times for a state but it is crucial that Rhode Island not institute fundamentally flawed immigration policy as a response to our economic woes.”

Carcieri said, “I understand the rabbi, the pastors, the bishop — they’ve got a role in the pastoral ministry, if you will, but my role is different and it’s not fundamentally flawed. It’s the law of the land. And my grandparents immigrated here from Italy and Sweden. They came here legally. Many people are doing this today. But this is about illegal immigration and putting in place common sense practices that I believe will begin to get control of this in our state.”

When Dobbs thanked him for appearing on the show, Carcieri said, “My pleasure, Lou. Stay on it.”

speoples@projo.com