South Carolina politicians unite to make state a sanctuary for illegals

Source: http://word.truthintheword.org/archives/1359

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From The Greenville News (aka Pravda on the Reedy Sewer)

By Tim Smith • CAPITAL BUREAU • May 14, 2008

COLUMBIA — A tense and divided Senate on Wednesday rejected the latest House version of an immigration bill while delaying debate on yet another proposal from a Senate leader touted as a compromise.

The 26-20 vote on the House plan likely triggers a joint committee between the two chambers to try and work out differences between each body’s latest bill.

But Senate President Pro Tempore Glenn McConnell introduced yet another proposal on the issue Wednesday afternoon which he said would correct the errors he said are in the House legislation and calm Democrats’ fears of farmers being unfairly penalized.

If the Senate debates and passes that plan, it would be the third immigration plan to be launched from that body.

Gov. Mark Sanford, who has favored the latest House plan, issued a statement in which he said he was concerned but hopeful.

“When it comes to those who voted against the House plan today, we’re still reluctantly giving them the benefit of the doubt that some of them are as serious as the House about strong immigration reform,” Sanford said.

“But we’re becoming increasingly concerned that all of these arguments about process are taking away from the real issue — creating a strong and enforceable immigration bill that the people of South Carolina have asked for.”

Consideration of McConnell’s plan was delayed after Sen. David Thomas, a Greenville County Republican, placed an objection on the bill so he and others could study it more. Debate on the measure could surface today or early next week. There are 10 legislative days left in the session.

Thomas said he is suspicious that Democrats have embraced McConnell’s plan yet were so opposed to the House plan. “Something is wrong,” he said. “Something is bad wrong.”

McConnell said his plan has attracted Democrats because its provisions distinguish between employers who knowingly use fraudulent records and those such as farmers who demonstrate a good faith effort to verify the legal status of their workers but might be without a computer.

As long as such employers hold on to the records submitted by the worker, they cannot be fined, he said. If an audit finds the records are fraudulent, then the employer would be required to fire the worker or risk severe sanctions, McConnell said.

The plan, like the House plan the Senate rejected Wednesday, would require employers to verify the legal status of new hires using either a South Carolina driver’s license, another state’s driver’s license with stringent document requirements or the federal electronic database system known as E-verify.

However, McConnell’s plan provides for heftier fines for those who fail to verify workers, ranging from $100 to $1,000, compared to the House penalties of up to $500.

And instead of the House plan of granting three years of probation to employers who knowingly hire illegal workers their first time, McConnell said his plan would grant businesses an implied license to hire in the state and then suspend it and all professional licenses if they intentionally hire illegals.

A first offense would suspend operations, he said, for 10 days, while a second offense would suspend it for 30 to 60 days. Their right to operate in the state would be revoked for a third offense.

The House plan also suspended a business’s ability to operate, but on the second and third offenses, and for a maximum of 30 days.

“We would do a lot more than the state of Arizona, or Colorado or Oklahoma,” McConnell said of his plan.

All three plans would stagger implementation, with the largest employers — those with 500 or more workers — going first and those with fewer than 100 workers not falling under the bill until the summer of 2010.

McConnell argued against the House plan, saying it was filled with errors, including its probationary penalty which he said is unconstitutional, pointing to a state Supreme Court ruling in a criminal case last year that found the state cannot delegate the granting of probation to the executive branch.

A spokesman for State Attorney General Henry McMaster said it is unclear whether a civil penalty involving probation could also be challenged as unconstitiutional.

Many of the Upstate’s senators voted to side with the House plan, including Sen. Larry Martin of Pickens.

“What I fear may happen is we might be in a stalemate in the last week of the session,” he said afterward. “I don’t think the House is going to back off its position very easily and that’s why I voted to concur.

“I felt like we had to make a stand on the bill we had in hand because I don’t think it’s going to get a whole lot better in a conference committee. It’s fraught with all sorts of danger. There’s no guarantee the conference committee will work anything out.”

McConnell said that a particularly sticky issue will be the penalties both chambers have passed for knowingly hiring an illegal worker. The House version, he argues, is unconstitutional, while the governor and some House members believe the Senate’s stiff fines aren’t allowed by federal law.

If the committee wants a third option, they will have to ask for open negotiating authority, which requires a two-thirds vote in each chamber.

Otherwise, the Senate still has the option of his plan, which has been tacked onto another House immigration bill.

“Immigration reform survived today because of that vote,” McConnell said. “Because had that become law, the group that wanted to come down on them the hardest couldn’t have. That’s the irony of it.”

Read the article HERE

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