Cicilline is a bald faced liar!
He is only now understanding that the vast majority of the voting public is incensed that he and his lame police chief have allowed this scumbag illegal alien go and rape a woman.
He is only concerned with the political ramifications of his perverted policies.

Cicilline and Esserman have been outed as lying enablers of criminal aliens.Note the deafening silence from the usual gang of "advocates"since this kidaanp/rape incident that didn't have to happen.Nougueras,Anderson,Martinez,Ordonez,et al are not public officials,so what they say is their business,but when public officials lie and obstruct justice they belong in prison-or at least out of a job.

Yes, Cicilline is definitely playing politics with the issue. Placing blame on the Bush Administration for a rape that occurred as the result of his police department's policy is proof of that.

I can only imagine how he'll explain potholes in the city ("If the Bush Administration's Department of Transportation...")

Cicilline should be more concerned about doing his current job than his political future.

Outside of Providence, Cicilline is known for thre things: bungling a small snowstorm that stranded his city's school kids on buses for hours; letting a rapist go free because his police department didn't perform a simple check; and having a brother that shakes down drug dealers.

Cicilline's claims of reducing crime and cleaning up corruption are tainted following the media reporting that some of the statistics may have been fudged to make his administration look better.

There's no way Cicilline will win any of the suburban areas or even the smaller urban areas in a general election.

Cicilline should focus less on blaming the President for street crime in his city and more on getting school kids safely home and protecting the public.

(One small correction to Anthony's otherwise excellent comment: Providence potholes are the fault of Dick Cheney, not George Bush.

Thank you. Carry on.)

Call me crazy, but I think violent crime is the real problem here, not paperwork lapses.

Let's get real... as a percentage of the population, "legal", native born citizens probably commit the same level of violent crime, possibly more crime, than so called "illegal aliens".

So let's cut the bs... the real problem in this state is violent crime, lack of economic opportunity, and crumbling infrastructure.

Scapegoating poor people without papers is a joke. It does nothing to address the real, serious problems we face here in this state.

So, let's leave the landscapers, ditch diggers, janitors, factory workers and bed pan cleaners alone and start addressing the real, serious problems we've got here in Rhody, and holding the politicians and corporations accountable for the problems they've created.

Erik-most enforcement efforts by ICE and the targets of the Governor's Executive Order are aliens(legal &illegal)involved in ongoing criminal activity or with criminal histories.
"Scapegoating poor people without papers"as you call it is not what increased immigration enforcment is about.
I don't think we need to import more criminals.Any alien who resorts to criminal behavior needs to be gone with no bullshit excuses about he/she just came here for a better life.If that better life includes dealing drugs,rape,gang activity,fraud,etc why shouldn't they be targeted?
You are using the tactics of the "advocates"in your response,trying to blur the lines between criminal and non-criminal aliens.Non-criminal illegal aliens whose only offense is illegal entry/overstay need to be addressed as a generalized situation rather than as individuals and laws making it harder for them to obtain or retain employment is the way to go there.
Your response might get some rhythm on the Rhode Island's Future blog,which takes the side of illegals every time.They have been surprisingly quiet over there on the Marco Riz/Cicilline/Esserman situation as has Chuck Bakst.and Karen Lee Ziner-she's still harrassing Terry Gorman.

Hey Joe, thanks for the good response.

I agree that illegal aliens engaged in, or convicted of, violent criminal activity need to be deported, but where is the line?

For example, they recently detained and held for deportation two guys charged with a DUI.

Yes, someone could get hurt because of a DUI, but lots of citizens have committed DUI's, and worse, and they haven't been deported because of it.

Will people be arrested and ID'd for littering or jaywalking, and then deported if the don't have the proper papers?

This is a very touchy and tricky subject, but we've been allowing millions of people to immigrate into this country, without papers, at the invitation of the big corporations, and with the express approval of the Federal Government, all the way up to the Presidency for decades.

So, to suddenly clamp down now, under the notion (as RIILE seems to claim), that people here without papers are somehow responsible for the massive problems we face in this country and state (from the corporate offshoring of jobs, to this insane pointless war which has cost us trillions of dollars and made us millions more enemies)... is inaccurate.

Most of the immigrants are just here to make a better life for themselves. The ones that are committing serious violent crimes should be deported... no doubt.

But the "drug" activity thing is even more tricky... what is the definition of a "drug" nowadays anyway?

The only definition of a "drug" that I can see is that it's a plant or derivative of a plant that the big pharmaceutical companies don't like because it's too much competition for their patent, chemical medications, many of which have had to be pulled off the market after being found to be just as dangerous (and some more so), than plant based "drugs".

Oxycontin (many times more powerful and dangerous than heroin) and many other manmade chemical medications spring to mind.

The drug war is, in large part, a phony anti-nature effort on the part of the large, rapacious pharmaceutical corporations to destroy their competition, even though human beings have been using herbal and plant based medicine for thousands, tens of thousands, maybe hundreds thousands of years.

And now suddenly they're going to "outlaw" some natural plant people like, want or need, and force them instead to take some toxic, overpriced manmade medication for hundreds of dollars, which many people can't afford?

It's bogus.

Our medical/pharmaceutical/military/industrial system in this country is our main problem, and has been oppressing people and stirring up problems all over the world for decades.

Did you know that many of the immigrants here from Central and South American countries are fleeing violence from Civil Wars that were started by the USA's CIA and other quasi-military "intelligence" services we fund with our tax dollars?

That's right... our CIA was so busy for the past few decades creating instability around the globe, that millions of people have left their newly deadly and devastated home countries and fled here to the USA, because they figured they'd at be safe and able to eat here.

Yet now we are denouncing and harassing the very people our government displaced with their warmongering, revolution instigating and civil war conducting in one country after another, from Central and South America, all the way over to the Middle East.

So, should we really now deny these people displaced by our governments meddlesome militaristic actions sanctuary and subsistence?

I say "no", and if you research these issues a little, from our government and CIA's murderously heinous actions in countries around the globe (particularly in South and Central America where most of our immigrants are fleeing from, not to mention what they did in Iran under the evil Shah) you would probably be disgusted, and have more sympathy for these millions of people who come here fleeing the terror that our Federal Government, Corporations and "Intelligence" Agencies have sown in numerous countries.

Trust me... the real evil in this country is at the very top... in agencies like the CIA and NSA, who conduct guerilla wars, instigate civil wars, and establish murderous gestapo-like secret police forces to prop up US puppet dictators like our CIA did in Iran under the Shah in the 1970's.

That's why Iran hates us today... because of what the USA installed dictator Shah and his evil CIA established secret police force did to the Iranian people decades ago... a reign of torture and murder that Iran will never forget.

Our leaders will never tell you that, or the facts behind why any of these other countries supposedly "hate us for our freedom"... they will just continue to saber rattle for war against Iran, constantly demonizing the victim, which what we Americans, from the Federal Government on down, seem to do best.

It has to stop. We have to start taking a realistic look at just what our leaders and quasi-military intelligence agencies have done in our name over many decades, and we must stop them from doing it ever again.

Whew!Erik-you just articulated a whole political philosophy(which I disagree with in large part,but we don't have the time or room to debate it here)-I am thinking in a smaller arena-if you are here as an illegal alien,the least you could do is not commit other offenses.DUI is deadly serious-yes,we have citizens committing all kinds of crimes,but the point is they are supposed to be here to begin with(not saying I wouldn't trade some citizens for some people from abroad,but it doesn't work that way)-whatever the mega-milieu of immigration is,we have to be concerned day to day with the mini version.I spent 9 years in narcotics enforcement and I drew some conclusions about the big picture which I'll keep to myself for now,but I was not a neocon punk planning campaigns from behind a desk-I had to kick in the doors and the only gratitude was from neighborhood people who maybe had one less drug house to contend with for a few nights.It was enough-the people whose kids had to play next to these sewers were not the limousine liberals from the East Side-they were largely poor or working class people and mostly "of color"-the drug dealers were largely aliens-legal and not-that's the way it was.If it doesn't fit some template you have,I'm sorry.Now,you can go on about the CIA,and Arbenz,Mossadegh,Allende until the cows come home,but I am more concerned with getting rid of people who contribute nothing but a dimunition of the quality of life.I could care less where they are from or their race.You can believe me or don't-you sure have strong opinions(as do I)-I lived through the period you're talking about including an interminable war in Vietnam which I served in and have been paying for with diseases for decades.if I had to do it again,I would,and if that strikes you as inexplicable that's all right -it's my call.
I concentrated mainly on criminal aliens when I was an INS agent-and citizens engaged in smuggling,harboring,counterfeiting and organized fraud.I try to stick to what I know about.I'm retired 12 years, and shouldn't give a damn,but when I hear my former agency called a "terrorist organization" by an asswipe Brown graduate/activist(Ms.Kurland)I don't think I'm wasting my time by staying in the debate.
I do have to commend you for laying out your position extremely well(no sarcasm intended).

Erik-one more thing.Oxycontin is nothing more than a supersize time-release Percoset,which is much less effective than heroin.I took Percoset once,and never will again.I couldn't urinate and wound up getting a catheter put in at 2 AM,which sucks.
There are plenty of effective painkillers around,which eliminate the need for heroin-fentanyl,Dilaudid( which I needed for post op trigeminal neuralgia-it really worked),morphine,dolophine(methodone),numorphan,toridol-etc,etc.
If you like smoking weed,I can't make a big deal of it-it shouldn't be a crime,but cocaine,heroin,ecstasy,lsd,ketamine,and heroin sould not be available.they always will be,however.The only REAL war on drugs would have meant bombing the growing areas,killing the cartel personnel from the top down,whether in the Golden Triangle,South America,or the Afghan-Pakistan area.And killing their logistic support people-bankers,accountants,and so forth.We lacked the will,so the drug war went down the toilet.I don't have the answers-does Obama or McCain-I doubt it.Do you?Is there anything the US has done in the last 60 years that you like?It is apparent that you consider open borders as reparations for alleged misconduct by the US.I don't buy it for a minute.We just cannot afford open borders or a lack of control over who is here doing what.Historically this stance has preceded the fall of great powers.You advised me to research history.Been there,done that and bought the tee shirt,but I always can learn something new.

Hey Joe, great posts... I'll have to print them out and take them home to give them the thought they deserve. Lots of really good points.

I was put through hell by the medical system in this country in the 1990's, when I was in severe pain from a birth defect and subsequent injury, and they put me through unnecessary surgery instead of just giving me narcotics, because all the doctors I went to were too afraid of the DEA to prescribe what they knew was necessary.

I eventually had to fly from RI to Texas to see an anesthesiologist who was not afraid to prescribe what I needed to deal with the pain every day.

I finally found a solution to my medical problems in Arizona, and went off the narcotics voluntarily after one year.

Now here it is ten years later, and I'm having severe pain on the whole right side of my body, especially my right eye, jaw and temple, and no doctor I've seen has been able to tell me what it is, or can give me anything to make the pain stop.

It hurts so bad, and I've been so reluctant to go through that multi year doctor hunt again, that I've groundlessly fantasized about getting a syringe full of heroin and injecting it right into my eye socket... and I hate needles.

I wouldn't do it, because I know how dangerous street drugs are, because of their purity and potency issues, but that's how bad it hurts.

So, I can sympathize with all the suffering people of this country and planet... because I know what it's like to suffer in agony.

Unfortunately, we have a medical/pharmaceutical/governmental/military system in this country that not only denies it's own citizens legal prescription narcotics for their suffering, but also denies them illegal narcotics for their pain, and then goes and creates even more agony in other countries by dropping cluster bombs on the heads of men, women and children by the millions... all while trying to outlaw, ban, control and profit from the only substances guaranteed to cure pain on the planet... narcotics.

In other words, whoever is in control of our system in this country, is trying to simultaneously cause more pain, while controling and denying pain relief, and profitting from it at the same time.

That is the kind of sick system we are dealing with in this country... and it's not pretty.

And as you yourself personally know, it also hurts like hell.

Illegal immigrants are not the enemy Joe. The real enemy is the sick incestuous governmental/corporate/pharmaceutical/militaristic nexus we labor under, which cruelly denies it's own citizens the right to pain relief, while simultaneously causing even more pain and suffering in other parts of the world... that system we've been taught to worship and serve is the real enemy.

Yeah it sucks... I spent years of my life supporting, enlarging and empowering that same system for an occupation, but sad truth is, it's a corrupt and anti-human system, and it has to be fixed or destroyed.

Sorry for that ending note... I should have said "dismantled". I guess I've been watching too many action movies. lol