Colleen Conley, left, director of the Rhode Island Tea Party, and radio talk-show host Helen Glover, center, listen to Terry Gorman, director of Rhode Islanders for Immigration Law Enforcement, at a rally Thursday at the State House to support immigration reform.
The Providence Journal / Connie Grosch
PROVIDENCE — Rhode Islanders for Immigration Law Enforcement (RIILE) and the Rhode Island Tea Party led a vocal rally at the State House Thursday afternoon to protest House Speaker Gordon D. Fox’s scuttling of a tough Arizona-style bill cracking down on illegal immigration that was introduced by state Rep. Peter Palumbo.
About 150 people gathered on the outside patio before moving into the State House rotunda. It was one week after protesters chanting “Hey hey, ho ho, Peter Palumbo’s got to go” on the House floor.
Fox said the issue belongs with the federal government, not the state. Palumbo filed the bill late enough that Fox could decide against a hearing. The speaker’s decision on Monday effectively killed the bill which was identical to a new Arizona law considered to be the most restrictive anti-illegal immigration measure in the country. Opponents call it an open invitation to racial profiling, even as polls show wide support.
The Arizona law gives the police broadened powers to question anyone during a stop about their immigration status if “reasonable suspicion” exists that they may be in the country illegally. It is also makes it a crime not to carry alien registration cards.
“We would like to take back the power that was taken away from us by the speaker of the House,” RIILE executive director Terry Gorman said, to cheers from the crowd.
As Palumbo stood smiling from the sidelines, Gorman said, “I’m gonna start calling him ‘G Palumbo,’ for ‘Guts Palumbo,’ to have the guts to try to get the bill in there … I don’t care if he wanted to feather his nest, or whatever they were saying he was trying to do, he brought the bill forward.”
Palumbo acknowledged on WPRO talk radio Thursday morning that he introduced the bill for publicity, and was not set on a hearing. He subsequently told The Journal, “It was designed to bring publicity to the issue ... I appreciate the publicity [for] myself. Of course I do. But I wanted to draw the attention to the issue, that’s what I wanted to say.”
As people shook Palumbo’s hand and called him a hero, Palumbo said, “Shame on me for not introducing it [the bill] on time,” and “we’ll be back” next session with a similar bill. “We really need to keep this alive.”
WPRO talk-show host John DePetro praised Governor Carcieri for “starting this” with a 2008 executive order on illegal immigration.
“Look how they scattered like cockroaches when you shine a light on them,” DePetro said, referring to illegal immigrants. He added, “This will be an issue in the fall … We’re going to make things change.”
Gorman stated concern that increased numbers of undocumented immigrants would increase the incidence of rape, kidnappings and other violence. “It’s not the magnitude that’s in Arizona,” he said, “but the potential for all that violence is there.”
He said, “For all the people who say ‘Terry Gorman’s a white supremacist’ … ‘Terry Gorman’s a bigot,’ guess where I spent Cinco De Mayo? (the May 5 Mexican holiday) I spent Cinco De Mayo talking for two hours with a Mexican-American woman,” whom he discovered shared his views. “So throw all that racist crap out,” he said to applause. “That’s what she said. Throw all that crap out.”
Thursday’s crowd was predominantly white and middle-age. Last week’s demonstrators, who called Palumbo’s bill and the Arizona law “racist” and targeted against Hispanics, was largely youthful, Latino and white.
Gorman expressed disappointment with the size of Thursday’s rally.
“I was hoping for at least a couple hundred more,” he said. I was anticipating to fill up this whole patio, but it didn’t come to fruition. But we’ll be here again.” Gorman added, “We intend to keep going until we get to the end of the path.”
The crowd was dotted with American flags and T-shirts, and red, white and blue. Signs were everywhere. One said, “G. Fox more concerned about 40,000 RI illegal aliens than legal RI citizens.”Paul Delamare, a retired Marine from Greenville, held a yellow “Don’t Tread on Me” flag. He said, “I’m tired of footing the bill for people who do not belong here. Illegal is illegal, no matter how you slice it.”
Republican Robert Tingle, who twice unsuccessfully challenged Jack Reed for his U.S. Senate seat, shook Palumbo’s hand and called him “a courageous patriot ... who is standing up for the red-white-and-blue.”
kziner@projo.com
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