Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

PROVIDENCE -- About 50 people, many holding white carnations, gathered this afternoon outside the Garrahy Judicial Complex to denounce the arrests yesterday of maintenance workers at state courthouses.

Federal and state law enforcement officials indicated earlier today the 31 workers were suspected illegal immigrants and that they were arrested on charges related to identity fraud.

Roxana Rivera, a representative of the Service Employees International Union, Local 615, opened the news conference this afternoon, surrounded by others standing in a horseshoe shape.

"We are here to denounce what happened last night in this courthouse and in other courthouses across the state," she said.

"Raids do nothing to address the whole issue of immigration," she said, adding that they cause harm to communities.

"We need comprehensive immigration reform," she said repeatedly, but did not detail what that would be.

Speakers at the rally were making their comments in both English and Spanish.

Steve Brown, of the Rhode Island chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said, "There is nothing fair, compassionate or just about what happened to these individuals."

After being arrested, he said those arrested were placed into vans and taken out of Rhode Island, making it that much more difficult for families to know where to reach them.

"This is simply not a process that we as a country should tolerate for any individual," he said.

He also referred to the meeting of the governor's advisory panel on immigration issues yesterday, where he said state police were saying "no raids were being planned at the same time these raids were being executed."

Today, Brown noted, at the U.S. Attorney's Office followup press conference, state police officials denied the actions were raids, instead calling them arrests.

In press release earlier today, the group gathering this afternoon described itself as including leaders of the immigrant community, elected officials, other community members and people of faith who are "working together to promote a message of unity and security for every Rhode Islander."

Among them was the Rev. James Ruggieri, who said that legal counsel will be available tomorrow at 1 p.m. at St. Patrick School in Providence to help those affected by the arrests. The school is located at 244 Smith St.

The group is gathering today at Dorrance Plaza, outside the Garrahy complex, which was one of the six courthouses statewide hit by federal immigration agents and state police yesterday evening.

-- With reports from projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney

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