What Exactly is David Cicilline’s Position on Enforcing Immigration Law?
In Edward Fitzpatrick and W. Zachary Malinowski’s story on the fallout from the Marco Riz case in today’s Projo, Providence Mayor David Cicilline states his basic position on the enforcement of immigration law…
“Let me be clear,” Cicilline said, “anyone who is in this country illegally and breaks the law should be deported. That’s why Providence police will continue its longstanding policy of providing federal immigration officials with information anytime a person is charged with a crime in this city.”So if the Mayor believes that everyone charged with a crime should have their immigration status investigated, then why isn’t his department using the best technonlogy available to assist in those investigations? What value is there in using a less efficient procedure when a better option is available?
And if the Mayor already claims that his city’s police department already supports investigations into the immigration status of individuals charged with breaking the law, then what objection does his administration have, if any, to the sixth provision of the Governor’s executive order on illegal immigration…
6. It is urged that all law enforcement officials, including state and local law enforcement agencies take steps to support the enforcement of federal immigration laws by investigating and determining the immigration status of all non-citizens taken into custody, incarcerated, or under investigation for any crime and notifying federal authorities of all illegal immigrants discovered as a result of such investigations.And if Mayor Cicilline agrees with the Governor’s order in principle, but just differs over what means best facilitate inter-departmental law-enforcement cooperation, then how come immigration activists like the Rev. Eliseo Nogueras or the Rev. Donald C. Anderson aren’t organizing protests at Providence City Hall, accusing Mayor Cicilline of “anti-immigrant sentiment” and fomenting “unwarranted harassment of legal immigrants and citizens of color”. Do they perhaps suspect he is not as serious about enforcing immigration law as he is now trying to sound? Has the Mayor been issued one of those progressive “say whatever you want for political reasons, we know you don’t mean it” passes, or is there some more benign reason?
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… Read more »
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… Read more »
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… Read more »
Sorry for that ending note… I should have said “dismantled”. I guess I’ve been watching too many action movies. lol