By JIM BARON

PROVIDENCE — At one Woonsocket elementary school last September, Rep. Jon Brien says, 80 children showed up for the first day of school that had never been in the district before, were unknown to school officials and the majority of them needed English as a second language.

“I’m not saying they were all illegal,” the Woonsocket Democrat said. But, he explained, “one can infer that of 80 children who show up on the first day of school that no one in the community has seen before and the majority of them cannot speak English, at least a majority of them are not in the country legally.”
It was to address that kind of illegal immigration problem that Brien introduced legislation requiring
See BRIEN, Page A-2
employers to verify the legal citizenship status of all new hires. That bill passed the House of Representatives Tuesday night on a 53-17 vote and went to the Senate, which is also considering an identical measure sponsored by Woonsocket Sen. Marc Cote.
Brien’s bill passed the House after 2 a.m. on the last night of the 2007 General Assembly session, but was not taken up by the Senate.
The legislation mandates that businesses with three or more employees participate in the federal E-Verify program. Once a person is hired, the employer takes information from the federally-mandated I-9 form and logs the individual’s name, date of birth and Social Security number or immigration documentation number onto a Web page maintained by the Department of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration (SSA).
In 92 percent of the cases, Brien said, the employers receive a response within three to five seconds verifying that person’s immigration status. He said 98 percent of people who are work-eligible receive the same quick response. Many of the remaining 2 percent, the lawmaker noted, are naturalized citizens who did not inform the SSA of their status or married women who did not notify SSA that their names had changed.  
Those whose names are kicked back with a “tentative non-confirmation” label have eight days to contact the SSA at which time they become a “protected class,” and cannot be fired for their suspect immigration status until SSA makes a determination in their case.
Employers who do not comply with the law face fines of up to $50,000
Companies with 200 or more employees would have to participate in E-Verify by July 1, 2009. Those with 50 to 199 employees would have until Jan. 1, 2009, and those with fewer than 50 would have to comply by Jan. 1, 2010.
“Illegal immigration reform begins with the employers,” Brien said. “When you put all the employers on a level playing field and you create more job opportunities for people who are supposed to be in this state, you basically will lower unemployment, create more competition, more of a level playing field and not only that, you will see the cost benefits that happen as it relates to education, as it relates to health care, as it relates to incarceration and as it relates to social services.
“Once people find out that Rhode Island checks, they are going to decide to go to Connecticut or New York or Massachusetts, because Rhode Island is a place where we make sure you are work-eligible,” he said. “It’s going to have a long-term and short-term net benefit for the state as a whole; that’s you, that’s me, that’s all of us.”
Last month, Gov. Donald Carcieri issued an executive order requiring all state agencies, and any companies or contractors doing work for the state, to use the E-Verify program. On Wednesday, Carcieri said through spokeswoman Barbara Trainor that Brien’s bill is “part of the process needed to get control” of the illegal immigration issue.
Providence Rep. Joseph Almeida is one of those who disagree.
“Big Brother is on the way, Almeida said during debate on the House floor Tuesday. “This is an issue about human rights. I don’t see any compassion in this bill anywhere.”
Almeida suggested creating a study commission to investigate the ramifications of the bill, but nobody took him up on it.
“The system is not perfect,” Almeida warned, “there are people who will get hurt.”
Republican Rep. Joseph Trillo of Warwick retorted: “Is this perfect? No, it’s not perfect. It’s got flaws. Somebody is going to be treated unfairly by it. But look at all the people who are being treated unfairly by us doing nothing.”
Terry Gorman, executive director of Rhode Islanders for Immigration Law Enforcement, said his group is “tickled to death” that Brien’s bill passed the House. But, he added, “we have our fingers crossed and our legs crossed and we are saying Novenas” in hopes the bill will get a vote in the Senate.
He said Senate Majority Leader Teresa Paiva Weed is a “major impediment” to Senate passage. He pointed to reports last year that Paiva Weed deemed the bill “too divisive” and prevented the Senate from taking it up.
Brien said that with 27 co-sponsors in the Senate, “we’re in a much better position than we were last year.” He said the Senate would be “hard pressed not to take it up on the floor and if they take it up on the floor, it will pass.”
“This is not a mean-spirited piece of legislation,” Brien said. “It is not too much to ask. Anyone who thinks it is too much to ask is on the wrong side of this issue.”