DOA to hold hearing on regulations aimed at implementing E-Verify
3:17 PM Tue, Dec 02, 2008 | Permalink
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By Katherine Gregg PROVIDENCE -- The Carcieri administration is planning to hold a hearing tomorrow on regulations requiring state vendors and applicants for state contracts to screen new employees through a federal E-Verify program. The hearing, which has been scheduled for 10 a.m. tomorrow at the Department of Administration building, is not among the open-meeting listings on the secretary of state's Web site. When asked why it was not posted on the site where state law requires the advance posting of all state and local meeting agendas, Carcieri administration lawyer Peter Dennehy took the position that public hearings required by the state's Administrative Procedures Act on proposed rule changes do not have to be posted on the central page on the secretary of state's site where other meeting notices appear. The proposed rules can be found at: http://www.purchasing.ri.gov/Notice3.pdf The E-Verify program determines whether new hires are legally authorized to work in the United States. The Rhode Island chapter of the ACLU has challenged both the legality of the governor's executive order cracking down on illegal immigration -- which calls for the DOA's use of E-Verify -- and the earlier adoption, without public notice or a hearing, of emergency rules to implement it. The ACLU argued there was no demonstration of imminent peril to health, safety or welfare that justified the adoption of emergency rules. But the Carcieri administration argued imminent peril indeed existed after it found itself plagued by a rash of no-show janitors supplied to a host of state agencies, including the Department of Administration and the state college system, by the same two companies - -TriState Enterprises and Falcon Maintenance -- whose employees were the subject of an immigration sweep at state courthouses. Court challenges have been pending. Today, Superior Court Associated Justice Mark Pfeiffer denied a request by the local ACLU and R.I. Coalition Against Domestic Violence for a temporary restraining order to block the emergency regulations that would be superceded by the regulations up for a public hearing tomorrow. A court challenge to Carcieri's executive order is still pending. State ACLU Director Steven Brown today called the administration's failure to post notice of tomorrow's hearing on the central repository for all meeting notices -- the secretary of state's Web site -- "a real problem.'' He also called tomorrow's after-the-fact hearing on regulations already in effect "a sham." Had he not been following the case closely, he said, he would not have known the state purchasing division had posted it on its own site.
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Just so there is one less thing to complain about, the meeting should be postponed and properly posted. As for E-Verify, GO FOR IT!!!!!!!! The sooner the better. The burden of proof is on the citizen, just like it is when you go to get a copy of your birth certificate, driver's license, etc. Since when has the ACLU become pro-business? Just another excuse to get a toehold in the door for the illegals. The ACLU should be representing US Citizens.
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E-verify is necessary and justified in this day and age of illegal entry and false/stolen visas and social security numbers. American citizens identities, jobs and security must be protected, while at the same time keeping out those who would enter for the sake of a job.
Make no mistake, it is not racial bias to demand that your government use its resources to protect the country's borders and know who is working in this country/state and paying into the soc.sec.sys.
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