E-Verify requirements in Rhode Island: the 2008 executive order, its 2011 repeal, and the bills since

Rhode Island is one of the few states that has had an E-Verify requirement and then dropped it. In March 2008 Governor Donald Carcieri issued Executive Order 08-01, which required state agencies and businesses doing business with the Executive Branch to use E-Verify. His successor, Governor Lincoln Chafee, had campaigned on repealing it and did so with Executive Order 11-02 in January 2011. Two months later the state's procurement regulations were amended to remove the vendor requirement.

As of October 2026, nothing has replaced it. No Rhode Island statute or executive order requires E-Verify of private employers, state agencies or state vendors, and the state does not restrict voluntary use. Bills to create an all-employer mandate were filed in the Senate in 2025 and 2026 and were not enacted.

The timeline

What Executive Order 08-01 did, and why the history still matters

The 2008 order was a package. Besides E-Verify, it directed state agencies on immigration enforcement, including a 287(g) agreement allowing the State Police to work with federal immigration authorities; the governor-elect's 2010 release counted eight provisions in all. For employers the relevant parts were the requirement that Executive Branch agencies verify their own hires and that persons and entities doing business with Executive Branch departments use a federally approved work authorization program such as E-Verify for their employees.

The history matters for two reasons. First, vendor templates, contract boilerplate and compliance summaries written between 2008 and 2011 can describe the requirement as if it were current. A vendor reading an old Rhode Island contract form should check whether the clause survived; the procurement regulation behind it did not. Second, it shows how quickly a Rhode Island E-Verify rule can change: both the requirement and its repeal came by executive order, without legislation.

The E-Verify Compliance Act bills

S 2500, introduced February 6, 2026 by Senators Raptakis, de la Cruz, Paolino and Rogers, would add a new chapter 28-6.15 to the General Laws. As drafted:

• Who: any person or business transacting business in Rhode Island that employs three or more people, excluding the federal government, other states and political subdivisions.
• When: employers with 200 or more employees would apply to participate by January 1, 2027; those with 50 to 199 by July 1, 2027; and those with fewer than 50 by January 1, 2028.
• Reporting: employers would notify the Department of Labor and Training, with their E-Verify company ID, within seven business days of applying and of being accepted, on a sworn form. The department would provide a list of noncompliant employers to the federal immigration enforcement agency.
• Final nonconfirmations: employment would end on receipt of a final nonconfirmation, after any contest period.

Some of the drafting would sit awkwardly with how E-Verify works today. The bill requires an employer to submit an application to participate at least every 60 days until it is accepted, and to keep records proving it applied and, once accepted, that it is an active participant. Enrollment in the federal program is done online and is normally completed when the employer signs the memorandum of understanding, so in practice the paper trail would be the signed MOU, the company ID and the sworn notice to the Department of Labor and Training. The bill also speaks only of newly hired employees, consistent with the federal rule that existing employees are not run through E-Verify outside the federal contractor clause.

The 2025 bill, S 0585, carried the same title and findings. Both were referred to the Senate Labor and Gaming Committee. As of October 2026, Title 28 of the General Laws has no chapter 28-6.15, so neither became law. A new bill in 2027 would start over.

What applies to Rhode Island employers now

Form I-9 for every new hire, with Section 2 within three business days of the start date. E-Verify is a choice, unless a federal contract requires it. Under FAR 22.1803, the clause at FAR 52.222-54 appears in contracts above $150,000 except those performed only abroad, those shorter than 120 days, and those only for commercially available off-the-shelf items, and flows down to services and construction subcontracts above $3,500 performed in the United States. Naval research, shipbuilding supply and federal facility work in Rhode Island are examples of contracts that can carry it. A covered contractor enrolls within 30 days and verifies company-wide new hires plus employees assigned to the contract.

An employer that enrolls by choice accepts the federal memorandum of understanding: a case for every new hire at the enrolled site, created after the offer is accepted and the I-9 is complete, and no adverse action while a tentative nonconfirmation is contested.

Neighbors

Neither neighbor has a general E-Verify mandate. Massachusetts asks Executive Branch contractors to certify that they verify workers' immigration status under federal requirements, without naming E-Verify; see Massachusetts. Connecticut has neither a mandate nor a restriction, and no E-Verify bill since 2010; see Connecticut. A Providence staffing firm placing workers in Fall River, Attleboro or southeastern Connecticut adds no state E-Verify duty. For anything further away, use E-Verify requirements by state.

Staffing agencies in Rhode Island

• No Rhode Island placement, including placements with state agencies, carries a state E-Verify duty in 2026.
• If S 2500 or a successor passes, an agency with three or more employees would be an "employer" in its own right and would follow the phase-in for its size.
• A client's federal subcontract can flow FAR 52.222-54 down to the agency; the agency then enrolls as employer of record. See E-Verify for staffing agencies.
• Rhode Island regulates temporary staffing separately, including through the Temporary Employee Protection Act in chapter 28-6.10, and licensing is its own question; see staffing agency license requirements in Rhode Island.

A worked example

This is an invented example. A Warwick IT services company renews a support contract with a Rhode Island state agency in 2026. Its contract file still contains a 2009 vendor certification promising to use E-Verify under Executive Order 08-01. The company checks the new contract's terms, finds no E-Verify clause, and confirms that the regulation behind the old certification was removed in 2011. It keeps using E-Verify anyway, because it holds a Navy subcontract with FAR 52.222-54 and its hiring site is enrolled for that work. Its compliance memo records that the obligation is federal, not a Rhode Island requirement.

A Rhode Island checklist

1. Treat any reference to Executive Order 08-01 in old contract files as historical, and read current contract terms.
2. Check federal contracts and subcontracts for FAR 52.222-54.
3. Without a federal clause, E-Verify is optional; Form I-9 is not.
4. Watch the 2027 Senate Labor and Gaming docket for another E-Verify Compliance Act.
5. For placements in other states, apply the law of the state where the work is done.