Renaissance Man Robert Healey, the leader of the Cool Moose Party in Rhode Island, knows just how tough it is to build an alt-party. In 2002, I wrote about the challenges facing alternative parties.

Healey, 45, who is still hailed by strangers on the street as "Cool Moose" and "the Moose Guy," is currently running for lieutenant governor on a platform of abolishing the office. Regardless of the outcome, this will mark the last campaign of the Cool Moose Party since state law requires that a party must receive five percent of the presidential or gubernatorial vote, or a petition with the signatures of five percent of those who voted in the last gubernatorial election, to remain on the ballot.

Without a dramatic shift in the fabric of American politics, Healey doesn't expect third-party candidates to make significant inroads in his lifetime, "but that doesn't mean you should stop trying."

So while voters, at least according to a RIC poll released this week, have caught up with his idea of abolishing the LG's office, it's not particularly surprising that Healey sees Ken Block's Moderate Party as facing less than a highly impactful future.

Asked about this during a taping this morning of WPRI/WNAC-TV's Newsmakers, Healey praised Block for getting involved in the civic process, but when pressed, he acknowledged that alt-parties are whistling in the wind.

House Minority Leader Bob Watson and Terry Gorman of RIILE also appear on the show, which will be broadcast Sunday, at 5:30 am on Channel 12 and at 10 am on Fox 64. (Ramon Martinez from Progreso Latino was invited to appear, but couldn't make it.)

It's good to see how WRNI (1290 AM), with the benefit of increased staffing, is offering a stronger local news report. GM Joe O'Connor recently sent out an e-mail, touting the public radio station's efforts:

The role of immigrants in Rhode Island history is well established.  All this week, WRNI has been exploring the challenges faced by current immigrants, state agencies and

lawmakers.                                                        

 

Our five-part series explores a variety of topics which shed light on the complexities of the immigration issue.  In our final segment, airing tomorrow during Morning Edition at 6:40am and 8:40am, WRNI's Elizabeth Smick goes in-depth into the economic impact of illegal immigration in the state of Rhode Island.  Specifically, her story will examine the economic impact of immigration on the season summer workforce in Newport. 

 

The rest of the stories from our immigration series are available online at wrni.org.  You can also click on the following story titles to access the audio content on our website.

 

Illegal Immigration

by: Flo Jonic

The issue of illegal immigration has recently moved into the forefront. But, even before governor Carcieri issued his executive order designed to crack down on illegal residents, a flood of bills with the same intent had been filed on smith hill. After years of passive acceptance of a broken federal immigration system, some Rhode Islanders are saying 'enough is enough'. Advocates, however, say they're being made scapegoats for years of overspending and corruption. WRNI's Flo Jonic begins our series with an overview.

 

RIte Care Cuts

By: Megan Hall
Two years before the Governor's executive order to crack down on illegal immigration, Rhode Island's general assembly voted to stop giving health care to undocumented and even some legal immigrants. That was through changes to RIte care - the state sponsored program that provides health coverage to low income children and families. Now the state is considering cutting over two thousand immigrant children who were spared from those cuts.

 

Immigrants and Schools

By: Flo Jonic

Education week magazine recently ranked the state's schools among the most expensive and lowest performing in the country. Educators say the disconnect is due in part to the large number of non-English speaking students. There's no question that many English language learners are performing below grade level and dropping out of high school. But, WRNI's Flo Jonic reports that improving academic achievement is complex and costly.

 

Caring for Refugees

By: Megan Hall

As Rhode Island engages in a debate about how to care for immigrants who came here illegally, there's little talk about those newcomers who came here legally, but would go back home if they could. Over the past five years, Rhode Island has welcomed more than a thousand refugees from war torn countries around the world. Many come from parts of Africa like Liberia and Burundi where medical care is nothing like the American health system. A new program through the international institute and the department of health aims to make that transition a little easier.

Providence Schools: In the Shadow of Renaissance    WRNI takes an in-depth look at education issues by talking with parents, students, teachers and civic leaders about the state of our schools.    This five-part series, by WRNI's Education Reporter Rhonda Miller, will air Monday, May 5th during Morning Edition.

Steve Laffey makes for entertaining TV, so would he make for an entertaining (and effective) governor? These questions will come front and center as we move closer to 2010.

During an appearance yesterday on 10 News Conference, Laffey repeated many of the talking points that he shared during an interview for my recent story on Lincoln Chafee:

Laffey says Rhode Island could become “a wining place” by bringing state spending on social programs and other needs into line with the average of the other 49 states, and he supports remaking the state pension system as a 401(k) program, creating a more competitive tax structure, and increasing school choice, among other things.

During the show broadcast yesterday, Laffey strongly endorsed Governor Carcieri's executive order on immigration.

Yet as Matt notes, there some good followup questions that could have been asked of Laffey on this subject:

Question #1 that was not asked: Your executive order in 2005 as Mayor of Cranston stands in stark contrast with Gov. Carcieri's recent executive order.  The key component of many city's "Sanctuary City" policies is to issue government-sponsored ID cards - which is exactly what you did in issuring an executive order giving out ID cards in cooperation with the Guatemalan and Mexican consulates while you were Mayor (ProJo article here). ....  If you support this policy to this day and you said that you did.  Do you stand by this policy decision and would you issue state ID cards to undocumented immigrants if you are Governor? 

Question #2 that was not asked: Many advocates for undocumented immigrants signed the "Draft Laffey" letter urging you to run for the Senate, including, Maria Alvarado, President, Guatemalan-American Association of RI; Julio Cesar Aragon, President, Rhode Island Mexican- American Association; Humberto Castillo, President, Central American United; Juan Garcia, Coordinator, Immigrants in Action Committee at St. Teresa's Church; Aida Hidalgo, Director Hispanic Ministry, Catholic Church and David A. Quiroa, Chairman, Newport Republican Party and President, Latino-American Outreach Project.  Do you support the efforts of your supporters above (including Aragon, who you traveled to the Mexican border with) to have Gov. Carcieri rescind his executive order and do you still count these immigrant leaders as supporters for any future campaign efforts?

As critics and advocates continue to debate the economic effect of illegal immigration, Matt points to this data:

Now, the Immigration Policy Center - in light of the upcoming Tax Day - are issuing a forthcoming reportby Stephen Moore, Senior Economics Writer at the Wall Street Journal and former director of Fiscal Policy Studies at the Cato Institute, and Richard Vedder, Distinguished Professor of Economics at Ohio University using data from the U.S. Census Bureau's 2005 Current Population Survey and other sources.

Moore and Vedder find that immigrants not only pay their own way in taxes, but play a hefty role in shoring up the teetering Social Security system, and provide a fiscal windfall to U.S. taxpayers by tending to come to the United States during their prime working years after the costs of their education and upbringing have been borne by their home countries.

Among the report's findings:

• Immigrant Households and Businesses Generate Billions: In 2005, immigrant households and businesses paid approximately $300 billion in federal, state, and local taxes: $165 billion in federal income taxes, $85 billion in state and local income taxes, and $50 billion in business taxes.
  
• Immigrants Pay More in Taxes Than They Use in Services Over Their Lifetimes: Depending on skills and level of education, each immigrant pays, on average, between $20,000 and $80,000 more in taxes than he or she consumes in public benefits.
  
• Immigrants' Relative Youth Contributes To Social Security's Health: Current levels of immigration will provide a net benefit to the Social Security system of nearly $450 billion in taxes paid over benefits received during the 2006-2030 period-and almost $4.4 trillion during the 2006-2080 period. This is because 75 percent of immigrants arrive in the United States when they are in their prime working years (age 18 to 65). But the share of native-born citizens in their prime working years now stands at only 60 percent, and will decline rapidly over the coming decades as the Baby Boomers retire.
  
• Immigrants Educated on Home Country's Tab: The roughly 26 million immigrants now in the United States who arrived when they were over the age of 18-after their upbringing and basic education were paid for in their home countries-represent a windfall to American taxpayers of roughly $2.8 trillion. The United States receives all of the tax payments made by these immigrants, while bearing almost none of the costs of raising and educating them.

Is "illegal immigrant" or "undocumented immigrant" the best way to describe the folks getting so much attention these days in Rhode Island?

Representative Peter Palumbo (D-Cranston) and Fred Ordonez of Progreso Latino, not surprisingly, offered different views on that and other facets of the immigration debate during a taping this morning of WPRI/WNAC-TV's Newsmakers. The show will be broadcast on Sunday, at 5:30 am on Channel 12 and at 10 am on Fox 64.

Also appearing is Elizabeth Burke Bryant, executive director of Rhode Island Kids Count.

Arizona's an interesting place. It's got beautiful cacti, a big city (Phoenix) with absolutely no sense of history or place, a small city (Tucson) with a lot of character, and since it's perched on the Mexican border, it's a hotbed of immigration politics.

An editorial in today's Times takes a look at what can happen when these two things intersect, with a local sheriff making energetic efforts in the name of homeland security.

For months now, Sheriff Joe [Arpaio] has been sending squads of officers through Latino neighborhoods, pulling cars over for broken taillights or turn-signal violations, checking drivers’ and passengers’ papers and arresting illegal immigrants by the dozen.

Because he sends out press releases beforehand, the sweeps are accompanied by TV crews and protesters — deport-’em-all hard-liners facing off against immigrant advocates. Being Arizona, many of those shouting and jeering are also packing guns. Sheriff Joe, seemingly addicted to the buzz, has been filmed marching down the street shaking hands with adoring Minutemen.

If this doesn’t look to you like a carefully regulated, federally supervised effort to catch dangerous criminals, that’s because it isn’t. It is a series of stunts focused mostly on day laborers, as Sheriff Joe bulldozes his way toward re-election.

The sheriff says he is keeping the peace, but it seems as if he is doing just the opposite — a useless, reckless churning of fear and unrest. Mayor Phil Gordon of Phoenix has denounced him, saying the raids are interfering with undercover city police officers and federal agents. The mayor of Guadalupe implored him to leave her community alone. State and county officials have pointed out that Sheriff Joe has ignored tens of thousands of outstanding criminal warrants while chasing day laborers and headlines. They say he has grossly violated the terms of his 287(g) agreement — which calls for federal oversight of local police — and have called on Washington to rein him in.

Gee, why could anyone have immigration-related racial profiling concerns when Julie L. Myers, the top immigration enforcement official in the US, is found to have ordered the destruction of Halloween party pictures showing a white Immigration and Customs Enforcement employee dressed as a black employee, after realizing it was inappropriate?

From the NYT:

Kelly A. Nantel, an agency spokeswoman, confirmed Tuesday that Ms. Myers had ordered that the photographs be deleted, but said she had done so because she belatedly realized that the costume was inappropriate and that it would be offensive if the photos were included in any agency publications.

But Ms. Nantel said that Ms. Myers never tried to cover up that the event had occurred. In fact, Ms. Myers sent a message to all agency employees two days after the party acknowledging that “a few of the costumes were inappropriate.”

“To suggest she somehow coordinated a cover-up is absolutely false,” Ms. Nantel said. ....

Ms. Myers had been a judge at the Halloween contest. The staff member who won the “most original costume” prize wore a dreadlock wig, what looked like a prison jumpsuit and black face paint.

“I’m a Jamaican detainee from Krome — obviously, I’ve escaped,” the employee, referring to a detention center in Miami, announced to the judges, provoking laughter, according to the Congressional report.

Ms. Myers then posed for photographs with the employee — whose name was not released — smiling for the camera.

It's not a big surprise that the Providence FOP, as Buddy Cianci reports, is backing Governor Carcieri's executive order on immigration -- in direct contrast to the stance taken by Dean Esserman.

For his part, Cianci agrees with those who describe the focus on illegal immigration as misplaced. "People want an excuse," he said this morning. "They blame the illegal immigration," which, as Cianci noted, is a relatively small influence in Rhode Island's $450 million budget deficit.

UPDATE: This just in from the gov's office:

Patricia Martinez, Director of the Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF), today issued the following statement regarding Governor Carcieri’s Executive Order on illegal immigration.

 

“This afternoon, I met with Governor Carcieri to discuss my recent public comments about his Executive Order on illegal immigration,” DCYF Director Patricia Martinez said.  “I explained to him that I was relaying what I was hearing in Rhode Island's immigrant community, and that those comments are separate from my personal position on the issue.”

     

“I apologize for any misperceptions my comments might have caused,” Martinez continued.  “In particular, I did not mean to imply that the Governor’s actions were spreading hatred.  Instead, I was trying to explain that immigration is a very sensitive and polarizing issue.”

 

“I support the Governor's Executive Order addressing illegal immigration,” Martinez concluded.  “I respect Governor Carcieri’s willingness to lead on this and many other important issues.  I believe it is an important step toward immigration reform.  In the coming weeks, I will work with the Governor to dispel public misconceptions about the Executive Order and to communicate its true intent.”

----

Things were getting unusually quiet yesterday on the immigration front. Fortunately, Patricia Martinez weighed in, keeping the story on its rightful place on the front page of the ProJo, and front and center on the airwaves.

Martinez, the director of the Department of Children, Youth and Families and a member of the governor’s Cabinet for the last three years, said Carcieri’s proposal, like a handful of bills proposed by the General Assembly, “is really slamming immigrants” by promoting racial profiling.

In related news,

-- The House Republican caucus has sent a letter to Governor Carcieri, expressing support for his executive order.

-- Justin finds evidence that the governor's executive order is working:

Governor Carcieri's executive order is already proving to be a success:

Rhode Island's decision to order State Police and other state agencies to help enforce federal immigration law is jarring border cities in Massachusetts, where illegal immigrants say they are now afraid to enter the Ocean State.

If they're that reluctant to cross a state border (with habitual experience of the ease of travel from state to state), imagine how much less likely they'd be to make a beeline to our state across a national border. Those who've opposed attempts to control illegal immigration on the grounds that it is impossible ought to take note.

Personally, I find the part about verifying the status of state workers and contract employees to be reasonable, at least on the surface. It's interesting, though, that the folks who seem to think that the government can't get anything right are willing to put their faith in eVerify. It also strikes me as unsurprising that the executive order would foster fears of racial profiling. More to the point, the issue is worsening polarization, and taking attention away from more serious issues in the state.

The immigration issue has developed over decades, with the tacit support of the federal government and big business. It should be addressed at the federal level.

In terms of the vox populi, two letters recently published in the ProJo stood out in expressing different sides of the issue.

Here's one:

In his March 30 column, M. Charles Bakst questions Governor Carcieri for his efforts to bring order to the illegal-alien problem here in Rhode Island. Why do apologists purposely gloss over the word “illegal” before the word immigrant?

Rhode Islanders understand fully the difference but Bakst appears to be challenged by the word. The governor, who is required to uphold the rule of law, is roundly criticized by Bakst for doing exactly that. Is there a vendetta in the works? Congress and the president have been disgustingly AWOL on achieving a just solution to this problem but the politics of special-interest groups and Congress’s own chicanery have caused them to not only throw the taxpayers under the bus but the illegal immigrants as well. Bakst has his own liberal philosophy, including ignoring the law, but most Rhode Islanders do not share it.

Rhode Island may be a “blue state” but the people are not fooled by that sort of clumsy commentary by confused writers.

SAM PARENTE

Cranston

And another:

I am the grandson of immigrants who came to Rhode Island in the early 1900s to work in textile mills. All that was required to enter the country then was a birth certificate showing country of origin. Even those who lacked the proper documentation were admitted, although their entry visa was stamped WOP, meaning without papers. Since so many Italians lacked papers and were so noted, the slur “wop” adhered to “illegal” Italian immigrants. It would be interesting to know if Governor Carcieri’s grandparents were legal immigrants, or if they were labeled WOP.

PAUL LeBON

Highland Village, Texas

As part of the ongoing publicity rounds for his new book, Linc Chafee taped WPRI-WNAC's Newsmakers this morning. The show will be broadcast Sunday, at 5:30 am on Channel 12 and at 10 am on Fox 64.

Here's a short version of some of the highlights:

-- Why aren't people more upset about the Bush presidency? Chafee points to the lack of a draft and the lack of appetite for dissent following 9/11.

-- Chafee says he's been having conversation with Ken Block of the Moderate Party.

-- In response to those who criticize him for not being more vocal, earlier on, in his criticism of the Bush White House, Chafee said he was getting "roasted" and facing accusations of being a modern-day Neville Chamberlain just for questioning the White House line following September 11.

Miguel Sanchez-Hartwein, executive director of the Center for Hispanic Policy & Advocacy (CHisPA), also appears on the show, taking part in some spirited dialogue about the ever-popular immigration issue.

Like I said, get ready for all-immigration, all-the-time.

From the gov's office:

Governor Donald L. Carcieri will be a live guest on Lou Dobbs’ program on CNN tonight to discuss the Executive Order dealing with illegal immigration in Rhode Island. The measure signed last week requires state agencies and vendors to verify the legal status of all employees, allows the state to inform people whose identity was stolen, and directs the Rhode Island State Police and the Department of Corrections to work with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to ensure federal immigration law is enforced.

 

Governor Carcieri’s brief appearance is slated for about 7:40 p.m. according to CNN producers.

According to audio, via WPRO, from the Providence Police Department's news conference today, Police Chief Dean Esserman says the Providence department won't participate in Governor Carcieri's order calling on local police to work with federal authorities on illegal immigration.

Esserman expressed concern that the order could make Providence residents less likely to report crime. He said he doesn't want to risk the trust that the police have developed in the community.

Dan Yorke, a sharp critic of Esserman, talked about the issue a short time ago with Superintendent Brendan Doherty of the state police. "Reasonable minds may differ," said Doherty, who indicated that the state police will follow the details of Carcieri's immigration order. To not address it, Doherty said, "would be hiding from the issue."

Btw, here's part of the official PPD release about today's newser:

PROVIDENCE- Mayor David N. Cicilline and Providence Police Chief Dean M. Esserman today announced the findings of the United States Justice Department’s five-year investigation into patterns and practices at the Providence Police Department.  The federal probe by the Civil Rights Division began in 2002 under the previous administration following allegations that Providence Police were using excessive force and providing police services in “a discriminatory fashion.”  In issuing its findings, the Justice Department concluded that the Providence Police Department “has made significant improvements” under Chief Esserman’s leadership.

 

“The Department of Justice has completed its review into the Providence Police Department (PPD),” stated the head of the Special Litigation Section of the Civil Rights Division, Shanetta Y. Cultlar, in a letter to Chief Esserman, “We want to thank you for your leadership and cooperation throughout the duration of this matter and we are pleased to report that the matter is now closed.”

 

“This is a police department that used to exist under a cloud of corruption, low morale and was at war with the community,” said Mayor Cicilline.  “The Justice Department’s findings validate the hard work of the men and women of the Police Department to transform this agency into a national model in law enforcement.”

 

“Credit goes to the rank and file of this great police department for all the success and recognition here today,” said Colonel Esserman.

While Governor Carcieri and his critics continue to square off on immigration, Amy Littlefield has a profile in this week's Phoenix of Stella Carrera, coordinator of immigration and advocacy services for the Diocese of Providence, a piece that tells us something about the stories behind the debate.

Carrera knows better than most how complicated the US immigration system can be. She came here, from Colombia, with a visitor’s visa in 1973 and overstayed her visit.
 
She moved to New York to be with her older brother and sister, and worked in a cosmetics factory, filling nail polish and mascara bottles, for minimum wage with no benefits. Carrera says someone from a local union heard about the mistreatment of the workers and he came around with some fliers. The owner caught wind of it and called immigration authorities.
 
When Carrera went outside for a cigarette and a coffee that day, she saw the cars and the officers. Immigration authorities shut the doors, herded everyone into a room, and asked them, one by one, for their paperwork.
 
Carrera remembers helping a woman who was several months pregnant, and who began to hyperventilate. Another woman curled up inside a cardboard box for two hours, praying to God she wouldn’t sneeze, while authorities combed through the factory. There were probably 10 cars, Carrera says. They probably took away 100 people that day.
 
At least 300 workers were detained after a similar raid last march in New Bedford, Massachusetts. History repeats itself, Carrera says. “Nothing changes.”

Littlefield also reports from Mexico on some of the factors that influence immigration to the US:

Miguel Pickard, who works for a social-research organization in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, says that the mainstream US media often overlooks how neo-liberal policies like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) have contributed dramatically to the rise in Mexican immigration. Following NAFTA’s implementation in 1994, subsidized US agricultural products flooded the Mexican markets, and Mexican farmers couldn’t compete with the cheap imports.
 
Immigration to the US became a “survival strategy,” Pickard says, for campesinos that could no longer make money selling corn and other agricultural products, as they had for many years. As a result, immigration to the US from Mexico tripled after 1994, leading “millions” of people to make the trip, he says.
 
NAFTA’s impact illuminates how the source of the Latino immigration “problem” is sometimes closer to home than we are willing to admit.

I visited with Lincoln Chafee at the Watson Institute at Brown this afternoon. (He's still not saying what he's going to do in 2010.) One of the things I asked him about was his reaction to Governor Carcieri's executive order last week on illegal immigration. Here's what Chafee had to say:

I think it's a diversion from the real issues, the priorities we should be talking about here in Rhode Island -- realizing our economic potential, getting DOT functioning better, getting the train station built [in Warwick], taking advantage of our tourism industry, working on our ethical issues that we have here in Rhode Island. Immigration is going to whip up a lot of emotions and divert us from real priorities.

To play devil's advocate for a second, the people who are very activist on the issue in supporting the governor would say that there are a lot of costs of government spending associated with illegal immigration. They say it is an important issue because of that. How do you respond?

I understand. I heard someone else say, "We're a land of laws and we're a land of immigrants." You got to adhere to both -- welcome our immigrants, but make them adhere to the law. On the economic side of some of the social costs of illegal immigrants, I'd say there are a lot of economic contributions going on also that you just can not deny. And it's just a reality.

In other news, Chafee seems pleased with the publication this week of his book, Against the Tide: How a Compliant Congress Empowered a Reckless President. He says he was told by his co-writer, former ProJo scribe Tony DePaul, that the Borders in North Attleboro has been selling out as quickly as copies are stocked.

In "Ready to rumba," my comprehensive 2003 story on increasing political activity by Latinos in Rhode Island, I looked at how the national GOP was trying to make inroads among Hispanics, and what it meant locally:

A popular East Providence politician once told Dan Garza that being a Republican in Rhode Island is like trying to pee up a rope. And as Garza knows, trying to cultivate Latino Republicans is even more difficult. Even with the chairman’s steady work and articulate manner, the Rhode Island chapter of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly has only about five members. But Garza, a pithy Ohio native and former Democrat who traces his heritage to Texas and Mexico, believes the GOP message of family, church, and self-reliance still has a lot of resonance for Latinos in the US.

Now, however, while Governor Carcieri's recent executive order on immigration has ginned up his support among critics of illegal immigration, Matt has the story of how it could erode backing for the GOP in Rhode Island:

Former Republican candidate for the RI House in District 73 and current chairman of the RI Hispanic Republican Assembly, David A. Quiroa has penned a scathing letter announcing his resignation from the RI Republican Party:

Adios RI GOP 

It is with great pain and sadness that I write this public announcement to state that I officially resign from my affiliation to the RI GOP and any other RI Republican committee, subcommittee, and appointments that I hold.

Effective on April 2, 2008 I become an unaffiliated voter thus seeking “Political Asylum” in the independent column. As an American citizen of Hispanic heritage I cannot remain as a member of a party where the leadership lacks vision for an integral inclusion of points of view – the tent is small and empty.

The Immigration Issue is an important issue for me, my family, my church, my friends and my brothers and sisters of the immigrant community. Not because I want open borders or want the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations to become a sanctuary State, but rather because I want the American spirit to be free of political correctness and opportunism – We need solutions.

These are times that need leadership. We need leadership with a foundation of solid political valor not political demagogy or speeches full with hypocrisy or cries of change that hide behind political correctness.

The current actions of the RI GOP have set the party back 50 years in the eyes of minorities. I make this statement as a proud American who has lived firsthand the unfortunate effects of discrimination. As such, I can tell you that racial profiling is REAL and it does take place everyday. Making our local and state police departments ICE venues does, at the subconscious level, put duress on our good and brave officers to engage in racial profiling. This added burden on our officers does not bring any solutions but rather complicates matters for the worse – Public safety will suffer.

I will remain active in civic public service, as I believe it is my duty as an American to better my country. However, I say Adios to the RI Republican Party and enter the independent field riding my brown elephant into the fields of independence.

To the surprise of no one, some of the angry white men of Rhode Island are using the ongoing immigration debate to drop more of the insightful bon mots for which they have become known.

Fellows with a bit more panache know that the velvet glove is stronger than the rhetorical hammer.

Yesterday's New York Times profiled one such individual, illustrator Al Jaffee, who, at 87, continues to draw Mad magazine's signature back inside cover fold-ins -- a role he has performed since 1964.

[T]he second thing that strikes you upon meeting Mr. Jaffee is that the Mad wiseguy one expects is nowhere to be found. Mr. Jaffee is a genteel, unassuming fellow whose demeanor instantly suggests “gentleman.”

That is especially surprising because in addition to the fold-in, he is well known for Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions, another longstanding Mad feature that is basically a running clinic on how to insult someone. No insults here. But plenty of quick wit. When he was told that this article was intended for the Arts & Leisure section, where high culture is often documented, he tossed this off: “It’ll be Arts & Seizure when people see Mad in there.”

Mad is, incongruously, a publication that seems to cultivate longevity, as evident from artists like Mort Drucker (first appearance, 1957) and Sergio Aragonés (1963). No current contributor, though, goes back further than Mr. Jaffee. And while other Mad features, like Spy vs. Spy, have changed artists over the years, only Mr. Jaffee has drawn the fold-in. Since the first appeared in April 1964 all but a handful of specialty issues of the magazine have had one.

“A number of months ago I counted, and I came up with something like 396,” Mr. Jaffee said. “I must have done No. 400 by now.”

Immigration is fast becoming the latest incarnation of the casino story -- the kind of thing that's going to wind up on the front of the ProJo more days than not.

Speaking today while taping Newsmakers, Joe Trillo said Governor Carcieri's immigration crackdown could save the state a lot of money. Guest panelist Jen Lawless disagreed, contending that the state shouldn't tackle a complicated situation that has, thus far, eluded a new federal approach. 

RI Democrats have put out a release ripping the governor:

Sadly, the governor has been in office for five years and he has yet to grasp how to solve complicated problems. No matter the issue, you begin by bringing people together from diverse backgrounds to discuss the issues and how they can be solved. Instead, once again we witnessed another meaningless media orchestration by the Carcieri administration that was closer to a hate rally than a press conference,” said Tim Grilo, a first-generation American, whose parents emigrated from Portugal. Grilo serves as executive director of the Rhode Island Democratic Party.

 “Doesn’t the governor understand that hundreds of thousand of immigrants have legally come to Rhode Island’s borders for the past two centuries and have greatly contributed to our society? The tone Governor Carcieri set yesterday was deplorable. Instead of hosting a meeting and inviting respected leaders of the minority community to the table, he chose the low road and took another cheap political shot,” Grilo said. “Given his plummeting public approval numbers, this looks like little more than a desperate attempt to throw a little red meat to his withering right-wing base.”

 

“There are ramifications to Governor Carcieri’s actions that he clearly does not understand. His spiteful tone not only encourages racial profiling but it encourages outright discrimination against legal citizens of our state. I think it might be time to remind Governor Carcieri that he represents all Rhode Islanders, not just those that share his narrow points of view,” said State Representative Grace Diaz (D-Dist. 11), vice chair of the Rhode Island Democratic Party.

On a day when the ProJo reports on a local merchant asking would-be customers for proof of citizenship because they were speaking Spanish, Bill Gates, a slightly more influential capitalist, has shared his thoughts about US immigration policy with Congress (h/t Drudge):

US high-tech companies are being forced to outsource more jobs overseas because of outdated restrictions on immigration, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates told Congress Wednesday.

Gates, echoing a longstanding complaint from the technology sector, told a congressional panel that the US immigration system "makes attracting and retaining high-skilled immigrants exceptionally challenging for US firms."

"Congress's failure to pass high-skilled immigration reform has exacerbated an already grave situation," Gates said in remarks prepared for delivery to a hearing of the House of Representatives Science and Technology Committee.

"As a result, many US firms, including Microsoft, have been forced to locate staff in countries that welcome skilled foreign workers to do work that could otherwise have been done in the United States, if it were not for our counterproductive immigration policies."

Gates said the limits on so-called H-1B visas aimed at highly skilled professionals are far too low for the rapidly growing tech sector.

He said the current cap of 65,000 H-1B visas "is arbitrarily set and bears no relation to the US economy's demand for skilled professionals."

The Microsoft founder noted that all the 65,000 visas for the current fiscal year were snapped up in one day last April and that employers are now waiting to apply for visas for fiscal 2009, starting in October.

I tend to agree with those who say that English is already the official US language, and that learning it is a requirement for sucess in this country.

A forum at Roger Williams University will take up the topic tonight:

BRISTOL – In a recent projection made by the Pew Research Center, 19 percent of the U.S. population will be foreign-born in the year 2050—that’s nearly one in five Americans. With our foreign-born population on the rise, should the U.S. make English our national language? Or should we broaden our horizons and make foreign language study required in our schools?

 

Members of the Roger Williams University community will gather to examine these questions on Wednesday, March 5, at the University’s next Socrates Café discussion, titled “Should English be our National Language?” Anthony Hollingsworth, professor of foreign languages and cultures, will moderate the discussion.

 

The event will begin at 7 p.m. in the Mary Tefft White Cultural Center in the University’s Main Library on the Bristol Campus at One Old Ferry Road. All Socrates Café discussions are free and open to the public as space allows.

While attention will rightly focus this week on the fifth anniversary of the Station nightclub disaster, the ProJo's Karen Lee Ziner does a great job today in telling the story of another kind of American tragedy -- that of Leonardo Cos Elias, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala, who suffered terrible, life-changing injuries during an industrial accident at a Lincoln manufacturing company in December.

Through a temporary agency, Cos began working last year at Packaging Concepts Ltd. in Lincoln, a manufacturer of display cases and furniture. First, friends say, he swept floors. Then he worked at a computer-numerically controlled (CNC) router, a high-speed machine that can cut metals, acrylic and wood while simultaneously engraving — or carving — intricate designs.

On Dec. 14, Cos became trapped in the machine and lay pinned to a table while overhead routing drills bore down on him.

The machine tore into his left leg and buttock. His leg, half his pelvis and his buttock were amputated.

He cannot sit up without toppling over.

The 32-year-old thus joined the ranks of Hispanic immigrants across the country — legal and illegal — whose injury and fatality rates rank higher than other populations, particularly in construction and agricultural work. Safety advocates say language and cultural barriers often impede training.

Fear of speaking up to employers over health and safety issues makes them vulnerable, whether they are here legally or not.

Ziner has done a thorough job on reporting on immigrants in Rhode Island, and she continues that work with this story, reporting on, among other things, the checkered safety record of the company where the accident occurred.

Company officials have declined comment, citing an ongoing investigation by the federal Occupational Safety & Health Administration.

OSHA area director Patrick J. Griffin, based in Providence, said the agency has up to six months to issue a report.

The company, a subsidiary of Abbott Industries in New York, has been cited numerous times by OSHA for what OSHA defines as serious violations. Since 2003, the company has paid at least $28,650 in fines for exposing workers to potential carcinogens and machinery hazards, among other violations.

Recapping a series of stories familiar to Rhode Islanders, Boston Globe reporter Maria Sacchetti today calls the Ocean State the site of "the most intense battle over illegal immigration in New England." There's no real detail on how this issue is playing out in the other states in the region, so we're expected to take Sacchetti's word for it.

Here's an excerpt:

In the past few weeks, state lawmakers and the governor have proposed a battery of measures targeting unauthorized workers, from expelling undocumented children from the state's healthcare system to making English the official language to jailing business owners and landlords who harbor illegal workers.

Even the father of the state's first baby born in the New Year was caught up in the issue. Days after a beaming Mynor Montufar appeared in the news, the illegal immigrant was picked up for deportation to Guatemala.

The increasingly vitriolic debate, playing out in coffee shops, on talk radio, and television, is dividing a state that has long taken pride in its immigrant roots. Lawmakers and angry taxpayers say the state is facing a $550 million budget deficit and cannot afford government services for illegal immigrants.

But immigrants accuse their critics of betraying their own heritage, pointing out that Italians, Irish, and other groups came to the United States for the same reason as today's immigrants: to work.

"If this is the country of immigrants, why the witch hunt?" said Enio Garcia, a Goya foods salesman, as he took orders at a market in Central Falls, a city outside of Providence. "They've forgotten where they came from."

Lawmakers and others say Rhode Island has been forced to search for its own solutions over the past year because Congress failed to do something about the 12 million immigrants in the United States illegally.

Matt sends along word of this timely event tomorrow:

The Challenges of Immigration Reform in Rhode Island

 

Wednesday, January 30th

12:30pm - 2:00pm

Room 30 in Roger Williams University School of Law

 

Speakers:

 

*Sen. Juan Pichardo - Rhode Island State Senator (D-2)

 

*Col. Ramon Martinez - President & CEO of Progreso Latino

 

*Alison Foley, Esq. - Prominent Immigration Attorney

 

*Roberto Gonzalez, Esq. - Prominent Immigration Attorney

 

* Ivette Luna - Community Organizer at Ocean State Action

 

Sponsored by the American Constitution Society, the ACLU, the International Law Society, APIL, the Latino Law Student Association, the Multi-Cultural Law Students Association, the Women's Law Society and the Feinstein Institute for Legal Service.

We had a smorgasboard during this morning's taping, with three different guests in three segments -- kind of like the Sunday talk-show equivalent of the Republican presidential contest.

Leading off is Mark Rogers from Cape Wind, which received a major victory when it recently cleared a federal hurdle for its proposed turbine farm in Nantucket Sound. Rogers agreed with my suggestion that, despite the energy-guzzling quality of habit-prone Americans, profitability will play a major role in helping to move forward renewable-energy initiatives.

Batting in the two-spot is Julian Dash, developer and head honcho of the Rhode Island Black PAC, who shared his thoughts about the upcoming MLK Jr. Day, as well as the significance of Barack Obama's presidential campaign.

Our last guest is Bill Felkner of the Ocean State Policy Research Institute, who talked up Governor Carcieri's budget-cutting proposal and called for a tougher stand against illegal immigrants. You might recall that his group was the force responsible for bringing Grover Norquist to Rhode Island last month.

N4N and Felkner found common ground in our mutual dislike of the governor's proposed $50 fine for those who drive while talking on a hand-held cell phone.

Newsmakers is broadcast Sunday, at 5:30 am on Channel 12, and at 10 am on Fox 64.

[Clarification: since at least one conservative has taken the headline on this post a bit personally, let me state that "loser" is meant here in the strategic sense of winning or losing elections.]

....

The recent arrest of Mynor Montufar has triggered a string of letters to the editor in the ProJo and posts on Anchor with a similar focus, particularly the generally ill-advised idea of having a string of children as teenagers. Today, Bill Felkner of the Ocean State Policy Research Institute released a related statement, questioning Steve Brown's description of Montufar as "a hard-working immigrant."

All this goes to the seeming point that immigration remains a hot button in Rhode Island and elsewhere around the US. We recall how the topic dominated the first half-hour of one of the nationally televised GOP presidential debates.

Yet there's a big disconnect here. I've written before (here and here) about how focusing on illegal immigration has been an unsuccessful strategy for candidates in other states (for the record, N4N believes the US should have secure borders). And Dan Kennedy today has more information to support the view that illegal immigration is not a big issue with voters:

A New York Times/CBS News national poll of Democrats and Republicans shows that the constant drumbeat over illegal immigration simply isn't registering.

According to the underlying data (PDF), just 5 percent believe that immigration is the most important problem facing the country — well behind war and Iraq (a cumulative 22 percent) and the economy (20 percent), and slightly behind health care (7 percent).

When asked what kind of change they most want to see the next president bring about, reducing illegal immigration (4 percent of respondents) was again well down on the list, behind improving the economy (20 percent), dealing with the war in Iraq (14 percent), improving health care (6 percent) and helping the middle class (5 percent).

Just to reinforce the point, John McCain — perceived as taking the least draconian stand on illegal immigration of any Republican presidential candidate — now gets the highest favorability ratings.

As Globe columnist Joan Vennochi points out, even though Gov. Deval Patrick is taking a political risk with his not-quite-proposal to extend in-state tuition rates to illegal immigrants, Patrick is well aware that immigrant-bashing has proved to be a loser of an issue.

Steve Brown, executive director of the RI chapter of the ACLU, stopped by the set of WPRI-WNAC-TV's Newsmakers this morning to discuss GPS monitoring of students in Middletown and illegal immigration.

I asked Brown about the case of Mynor Montufar, the illegal immigrant from Guatemala who was arrested after being identified on the front of the ProJo as the father of Rhode Island's New Year's baby, and his own level of responsiblity for the situation. Brown responded by saying that Montufar wanted to be there for the birth of the baby, and that for ICE to prioritize his arrrest and detention was mean-spirited and contrary to the Bush administration's touting of its "family values."

Brown also said that the current focus on illegal immigration in America should be viewed in the context of the hostility long faced by immigrants in the US.

The show will be broadcast Sunday, at 5:30 am on Channel 12 and at 10 am on Fox 64.

With state Representative Peter Palumbo (D-Cranston) and state Senator Christopher B. Maselli (D-Johnston) due to have a news conference at this moment to introduce illegal immigration-related legislation, it's worth considering the wider impact of this issue. The New Yorker's Ryan Lizza happens to have an article, entitled Return of the Nativist, on the subject in last week's issue.

In short, Lizza reinforces the point that while illegal immigration is a hot button that moves part of the Republican base, it' overshadows more important issues and is a loser in electoral politics. I made these points previously with these two respectives posts, here and here.

Let's go to Lizza's article.

To his credit, John McCain has been the Republican presidential candidate most unwilling to demagogue on the illegal immigration issue:

To the student with the immigration question, McCain patiently explained that some illegal immigrants had faced unusual circumstances, and he mentioned a woman who has lived in the United States for decades and has a son and a grandson serving in Iraq. When the student said that he wanted to see punishment meted out to anyone who has broken the law, McCain stopped trying to find common ground. “If you’re prepared to send an eighty-year-old grandmother who’s been here seventy years back to some country, then frankly you’re not quite as compassionate as maybe I am,” he said. Next question.

Meanwhile, single-issue immigration opponents, like Tom Tancredo, are moving the national GOP, and the party's presidential candidates, farther to the right:

Anti-immigrant passion also owes much to the disproportionate influence of a few small states in the nominating process. National polls show that, as an issue, immigration is far behind the Iraq war, terrorism, the economy, and health care as a concern to most Americans; a recent Pew poll shows that, nationally, only six per cent of voters offer immigration as the most important issue facing the country. But in Iowa and South Carolina, two of the three m