The stunning turnaround reflects the fickle nature of immigration politics in a state that still remains deeply divided over the issue, with critics vowing to fight Chafee’s actions. But it is also a lesson in the growing power of the Latino vote, and how an unlikely alliance between immigrants and Chafee, a risk-taking blueblood politician, tipped the scales and propelled Rhode Island in a new direction.
“The big thing was that it wasn’t working,’’ Chafee said in an interview yesterday, describing his predecessor’s efforts to curb illegal immigration. “The idea was that it would help us with our economy. It didn’t accomplish that.’’
One of his first acts in office was to rescind a 2008 order by the previous governor, Governor Donald Carcieri, that sought to reduce the estimated 20,000 to 40,000 illegal immigrants in Rhode Island and lessen what he called a burden on state resources. The order required state agencies and contractors to use E-verify, a federal service that verifies a person’s eligibility to work, and deputized several State Police troopers to help enforce immigration law, among other provisions.
Chafee said that instead of boosting the economy, the policies alienated the state’s Latino population, which has grown more than 40 percent in the past decade and includes significant numbers of immigrants. He said the state was unfairly blaming immigrants for the bleak economy.
The son of a governor and the descendant of one of Rhode Island’s founding families, Chafee would appear to have little in common with illegal immigrants flowing in mostly from Latin America, except for a $50 fine he got in 1977 for illegally working as a blacksmith in Canada.
But immigrants said Chafee listened to their concerns during his campaign last year, when the former Republican US senator, who ran as an independent, said he would rescind Carcieri’s order and fight for a path to citizenship for those here illegally.
