By JIM BARON

PROVIDENCE — Gov. Donald Carcieri convened the 27-member panel he appointed to advise him on the implementation of his executive order on illegal immigration control this week, telling them their mission is to flag any “unintended consequences that might befall people who are in the state legally.

The advisors, drawn from various parts of government, non-profit social agencies, the religious community, law enforcement and the business world are intended to be contact points for members of the immigrant community who have concerns about the executive order or how it is being carried out.
Issued last March, the executive order requires all state departments and agencies, as well as their contractors, subcontractors and vendors, to use the federal E-Verify system to make sure all their employees are eligible to work in the United States. It also calls for the State Police and Department of Corrections to make formal arrangements to work more closely with the federal Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency to deal with illegal immigrants who have committed crimes.
What the members didn’t know is that while they were gathered in the ornate but sweltering State Room Tuesday, State Troopers and federal immigration officials were swooping into six courthouses around the state, arresting more than 30 alleged illegal aliens they say belonged to the maintenance crews at those facilities. Those arrested were not state employees but worked for private contractors.
The judiciary, which employed the contractors, Falcon Maintenance Co. and Tri-State Enterprises notified ICE a month ago about evidence that some of the workers were illegal. That began the investigation.
At the advisory committee meeting, State Police Maj. Steven O’Donnell made it plain that “we aren’t going to turn our backs,” if they encounter someone who is in the country illegally in the course of their work.
“We don’t go looking for it, but it happens on scene or in a motor vehicle, we would be derelict in our duty if we didn’t respond and act…We will check them, if they are (illegal) we will turn them over to ICE.
O’Donnell said troopers “are not going out of their way to ask everybody do you belong in this country or not. That is not what we are about. That’s not going to happen. And if it does, you can file a complaint and we will follow through.”
On the use of the E-Verify system, Department of Administration Director Jerome Williams said that, so far, 359 new hires (310 of them seasonal employees) have been put through the system and none were rejected as a result. There were about a dozen who could not be confirmed immediately, but Williams said all of those were the result of clerical-type errors, where an applicant, for example, transposed numbers in a series of figures.
Later in the meeting, Ellen Alexander of the Department of Corrections said the percentage of prisoners with ICE retainers against their names is about the same – around 5 percent -- as it has been since 1994. Those two statements, put together, caused a couple of the members to question the premise of the executive order that brought them together.
"What was the point?" asked Bishop Thomas Tobin of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence. "Has this really made a difference then in terms of the employment practices of the state? If we didn't find any problems, has this really made any difference?"
The Rev. Eliseo Nogueras of the Hispanic Ministerial Alliance, suggested it is an “unintended consequence” that Carcieri’s executive order “presents a picture to the general population of Rhode Island that is not correct.
“The governor of the state felt the need to issue an executive order on this subject,” said the panel’s co-chair, retired Rear Admiral Joseph Strasser. “That’s not what we’re debating here, whether the governor should have done it, whether he shouldn’t have done it, whether the number is correct or this is correct. What we’re here to do is say this executive order is on the books, it’s there, and now in implementing this executive order, are there unintended consequences? And I think what we’ve heard so far, we haven’t come up with any yet.”