Opponents of Illegal Immigration Say It’s Not Over

Opponents of Illegal Immigration Say It’s Not Over

A controversial bill that would have required that local police enforce federal immigration laws may be dead, but backers measure say the issue is far from over.

Tomorrow at 4 p.m. they will hold a rally at the State House to protest the decision by Speaker Gordon Fox to keep the bill from coming up for a vote on the House floor and show their ongoing support for it, according to Terry Gorman, the executive director of Rhode Islanders for Immigration Law Enforcement, or RIILE.

Gorman doesn’t think the rally will necessarily change Fox’s mind, but he is hoping to send a message to the public about the costs of illegal immigration and what he described as the abuses of power by the House and Senate leadership. “People are starting to get the message,” Gorman said, noting that the Rhode Island Tea Party indicates average citizens are starting to pay more attention to issues. “Now we just have to keep communicating that.”

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Gorman said Fox was denying the public—as well as legislators—their right to have the bill come up for a vote. “He’s exposed the abuses that have been going on for as long as I’ve been paying attention to politics,” Gorman said.

Larry Berman, a spokesman for Fox, has said the speaker believes the state should not be involved in enforcing federal immigration laws.

“I don’t disagree that this is a federal issue but the feds haven’t done anything since 1986—that’s 24 years,” Gorman said, referring to the Immigration Reform and Control Act which Congress passed that year.