By JIM BARON

PROVIDENCE — Legislation that would require Rhode Island employers to use the federal E-Verify system to ensure that new hires are eligible to work in this country, thought to be dead after the state Senate recessed in June without voting it out of committee, might still have a chance to become law when the General Assembly reconvenes next month.

Woonsocket Sen. Marc Cote, the sponsor of the Senate bill said he expects to meet next week with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Michael McCaffrey to work out a way to make the bill acceptable to Senate leaders. The bill passed the House in 2007 and 2008, only to die in the Senate, and passed again earlier this year.
If a Senate version does pass, it must be identical to the bill that passed in the House, or the House must amend its bill to match the Senate version.
If both chambers pass a single bill, it is likely to become law. Gov. Donald Carcieri is a supporter of E-Verify and he mandated its use by executive order for state departments and agencies, as well as the contractors and vendors they deal with.
“What is happening now is I think that people are starting to realize that the federal government is becoming more and more cognizant of the value of the E-Verify program. The (U.S.) Senate just voted to reauthorize it and make it permanent,” Cote said. He added that U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Nepolitano testified before Congress that, in Cote’s words, “E-Verify is a cornerstone of workplace enforcement in the country, that the administration is committed to it.”
Cote said he believes the federal action has already having an effect in bringing recalcitrant senators around. “Leadership had some concerns about whether it would be reauthorized (at the federal level) and whether Congress was really committed. They have been following things recently and see that the trend is, if anything, it is getting stronger and stronger.”
A phone call seeking comment from Senate Majority Leader Daniel Connors of Cumberland was not returned on Monday.
Connors and other Senate leaders have said until now that a provision in the Cote bill that would establish a penalty for employers who file a document falsely attesting that they use E-Verify for their new hires would violate federal law that prohibits states from setting punishments for immigration violations.
Cote told The Times Monday that leaders “want to discuss (the bill’s language) to make sure we address whatever concerns that have been raised by counsel.”
He said Kris Kobach, a nationally known immigration attorney, advised him that there is nothing in federal law that would bar a penalty on employers submitting false paperwork. The only thing states are prohibited from doing, Cote said, is fining employers for hiring illegal aliens, and from determining who is and is not in the country legally, because both of those fall within federal jurisdiction.
A recent California Supreme Court ruling, Cote noted, states that “Congress never intended to exclude the states from cooperating in the enforcement of immigration policy.”
Cote said that getting the bill passed in the Senate will depend on making leaders there comfortable that the proponents are on solid ground, that the bill does not tread on federal jurisdiction.