Senate leaders criticized for again killing E-Verify

First and foremost I'd like to sincerely thank the members of RIILE and their friends and neighbors who called and sent e-mails asking their legislators to support E-Verify legislation again this year. Unfortunately, our state Senate leadership showed their true colors again and let Sen. Marc Cote's E-Verify bill die on the vine for the third consecutive year. They did not even have the common decency to provide their constituents any reason for not considering it.

They're just so above us all. This is just another display of the in-your-face use of the tremendous power they lord over the citizens of this state. The power wielded by Senate President Teresa Paiva-Weed and delegated to her puppets, Senate Majority Leader Daniel Connors, (D-Cumberland and Lincoln), and the Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Michael McCaffrey, (D-Warwick), in my eyes has become nothing short of abusive! I fail to see how any of the three can look the citizens of Rhode Island in the eye after preventing this legislation from seeing the light of day, especially when we have 77,000 unemployed in our state and we have approximately 22,000 illegal aliens with jobs, according to the U.S. Census Bureau formula.

A recent non-scientific poll done by our local WPRI-TV 12 found that 92 percent of Rhode Islanders favored E-Verify. So much for government of the People, by the People and for the People in Rhode Island.

The Senate leadership knows that the only segments of our state that would be adversely affected by passage of E-Verify legislation are illegal aliens and the unscrupulous greedy employers that hire them. I guess it's easy to see who the Senate leadership is looking out for and where their loyalty lies. They could care less about their oath to serve, support and protect the citizens of our state, especially those that are unemployed.

We must expose these abuses to the voting public, especially since 2010 is an election year. I'm asking the public to become even more involved than ever before as RIILE continues pushing for enforcement of our immigration laws and supporting any new laws that will help eliminate the $400 million cost of Social Services to illegal aliens in our state, a sum nearly equaling the state deficit. We all need to continue to be at the Statehouse to testify or simply for support, to carry our signs, display our banners, make our calls and send our e-mails. Finally, I guess even the "Change" that President Obama promised and actually fulfilled in this case by supporting and enforcing E-Verify on the federal level failed to sway our "all-knowing" Senate leadership.

Gandhi once said; "First they ignore you, Then they laugh at you, Then they fight you, Then you WIN."

Please remember, silence is consent.

Terry Gorman

Lincoln