Top 11 of 2011: Flared Tempers
Thursday, December 29, 2011
One might think, given this year's heated debate on this topic, that Rhode Island sat next to Arizona in the American Southwest. Or that we faced unchecked migration across a Canadian border.
Our borders guard us only from Massachusetts and Connecticut, but in 2011, any issues that touched on immigration resonated loudly--and often heatedly--in ways that felt much more like a border state.
As early as February, the issue raged at the State House, when conservative Democrats introduced a bill aiming to restore immigration control measures instituted by Governor Don Carcieri and rescinded by new Governor Lincoln Chafee as his second official act on the job. At stake, three provisions were be reinstated:
- It would require that any state agency hiring new employees confirm they are legal immigrants by checking a national database, known as E-Verify.
- Any business that had a contract with the state would have to do the same thing.
- State Police would have to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in enforcing federal immigration laws.
Debate raged in the marble halls and on the airwaves, and a side battle cropped up that same month when Providence's public officials engaged in verbal sparring matches over the Secure Communities Program, which would allow local law enforcement to run the fingerprints of anyone arrested against both FBI criminal history records as well as immigration records.
Back came more immigration debate in the fall, when the RI Board of Governors for Higher Education unanimously voted in favor of allowing undocumented students the opportunity to qualify for in-state tuition at state colleges and universities. With that vote, Rhode Island became the 14th state in the US to approve such action, but the first to do so without approval of its state legislature.
Battle lines quickly drew, with talk radio once again setting the tinder box alight. In December, Brown University students and faculty took the argument further when they gathered on the university's Main Green to support the DREAM (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act), which would allow undocumented students to gain permanent residence if they obtain a college degree or serve in the military for at least two years. No matter what the venue, immigration continues to dominate the hearts of Rhode Islanders, and no more passionately than in 2011.
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