Sanford Headed For Illegal Immigration Showdown

By Lee Bandy
SouthCarolina Insider

(4/24/08) Republican Gov. Mark Sanford and the GOP-controlled General Assembly are headed for a showdown over legislation that would crack down on employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens.

It isn’t going to be pretty.

In his State-of-the-State address in January, the governor said one of the first things he wanted to accomplish in his first 30 days this year was to successfully address the growing illegal immigration problem in the state.

He has fallen short.

Nearly three months have passed and neither the House nor Senate has been able to agree on a state immigration reform package.

One would think it would be pretty simple, remarked Drew McKissick, a member of the Republican National Committee from Columbia.

But not so.

The sticking point is over what method of identification the state should mandate on businesses to verify their workers are here legally.

Those favoring stricter enforcement want to require either a valid South Carolina driver’s license or to have the names and Social Security numbers be submitted to the federal government’s new E-Verify database.

Others such as the business community want to be allowed to continue to use the current method, submitting a federal I-9 form.

“I think it’s safe to say that we need a law that sets a higher standard when it comes to verifying whether an employee is in this country legally. It’s obvious the current method doesn’t work,” said McKissick.

“Given the burdens placed on our society and our taxpayers by illegal immigration, I don’t think it’s too much to ask that those who knowingly hire illegal aliens be fined and have their business licenses put at risk,” he added.

Sanford endorsed the E- verify system as a “critical” element.

“In talking to folks around South Carolina, what I keep hearing is that unless businesses verify the citizenship of their workers , we won’t have true immigration reform,” the governor said.

“We believe if we had a law that contained the e-verify system, rather than the I-9 option, it would have a greater impact on illegal immigration in our state, than the rest of the bill combined.”

Sanford urged the members to revisit this idea.

The House version doesn’t contain any verification requirement for private employers but permits it to be satisfied by using the failed I-9 process.

Sanford called I-9 an ineffective sysem already employed by the federal government in which fraudulent documents can be used to satisfy the verification process.

The federal government prohibits employers or states from checking the validity of the documents.

Sanford favors a more thorough, reliable process for state businesses - checking for valid drivers license, a new S.C version of I-9, and use of the online e-verify system.

Five states already use e-verify in some capacity. They are Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Georgia, and Oklahoma.

Already, Arizona has reported that illegal immigrants are starting to self-deport due to the effectiveness of the system.