Let's see if we have this right.

Two cleaning companies hire illegal aliens and send them into Rhode Island courthouses to "clean" the judges' offices, clerk stations, grand jury rooms, and court rooms. The issue of illegality arose when a clerk noticed a bogus photocopied identification next to a copy machine. Files in the clerks' offices remain paper records of civil and criminal proceedings. Many judges write opinions in their chambers. Stenographer notes of proceedings "in camera" or otherwise are stored in offices to which the workers have access.

Thirty one suspected illegals were rounded up. The respective companies, one of which is owned by a state legislator's brother, lied to the state that the employees had been vetted. There are discrepancies between the numbers of employees reported to the state and the actual number employed. This issue raises the problem of the failure of the companies to provide workers compensation or real payroll records. One company, which provides workers for the Attorney General's Office (another hotbed of confidential information on investigations and prosecutions), couldn't prove accurate payroll records, payment for workers compensation, or liability insurance. Both companies have continually violated a federal law which has been in existence since 1986 that requires the companies to fill out federal I-9 forms which require employees to prove their identifications and eligibility to work. Both companies told the state they were enrolled in E-Verify, the federal program which takes about 30 seconds to verify the identity of a worker, but could not produce any evidence of the enrollment.

So, the law enforcement community spent all these hours to dragnet the illegals and set up cases against the employees and the governor terminated the 50 executive branch contracts with the companies. But the Rhode Island court system and the attorney general has adamantly kept the companies in place. The attorney general traipsed out a bleeding heart story about "Cesar," the cleaning guy at 70 South Main St. and how he did nothing wrong. Of course, the attorney general ignores that the money goes to the malefactor employers first. Heaven knows whether "Cesar" is getting minimum wage, has workers comp or coverage for liability.

It's easy to see the lapse in judgment by the attorney general as being rooted in his gubernatorial aspirations and his pandering to the Hispanic vote, but it is puzzling to see that ultimate arbiter of law and order, i.e. the court system, kowtow to these two employers. The ostensible reason is that the companies have not been charged. This is a ridiculous standard. Criminal charges aren't the only criteria. There are civil and regulatory violations run amok in these scenarios.

The security precautions that are in place at the courthouses and the assertion that the workers are "never alone" in court buildings is a partial truth which obscures the reality. Workers may come through detectors at night but the reason why they are "not alone" is that the Capitol Police are at their stations in the entrance of the buildings or in their office. Absolutely nobody accompanies workers on their routes. How else would a copied bogus I.D. be found next to a copying machine in the clerk's office?

When you come right down to it, the attorney general really is worried about the fact that his offices wouldn't be cleaned for a month because of the bidding process. This obviously is the judiciary's real motive as well. Far be it for any of them to empty a basket. As "liberal" as their respective positions are the reality of this attitude is that they are not only condoning the violation of the law by illegals and the companies who hire them but they are also giving an imprimatur to the slavery system obviously in place. One need not be a legal genius to know that the company bosses are deflating the number of workers because they are skimming the salaries and not providing even workers comp for the safety net of the worker. To see the top "justice officials" look the other way so they will get their offices cleaned is a sad spectacle.

- Violet is an attorney and former state attorney general. She is a frequent contributor to WPRI-TV's "Newsmakers."