Friday, March 28, 2008

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.