South Carolina Immigration Law May Be In Trouble
By: Gerri L. Elder
South Carolina recently passed an immigration bill that depends largely on the E-Verify system, a federal immigration database.
The E-Verify system is reportedly used by approximately 80,000 employers nationwide and serves as verification of new employees' immigration status. If the E-Verify system didn't exist, South Carolina's immigration law would lose its teeth - and that is exactly what could happen.
Greenville Online reported that the E-Verify system is currently a hot topic in the U.S. Senate and that the boys in Washington don't exactly agree on it.
The continued Senate debate over E-Verify prevented a vote on the issue before the end of the session. That means that the extension of the E-Verify system remains in limbo until the next session begins the week of September 8. That session will only last a few weeks, so there is fear and speculation that the E-Verify system could die when it expires in November. If that happens, the South Carolina immigration law that revolves around E-Verify will be useless.
South Carolina legislators are now realizing that they may have put the cart before the horse with their new immigration law. A spokesman for South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford has said that if Congress fails to renew the E-Verify system, South Carolina legislators would have to address the issue in their next legislative session. And they may find themselves doing just that if they would like to have any type of effective immigration law.
The E-Verify system was created in 1996 and is maintained by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Employers use the system to access Social Security and Department of Homeland Security databases to verify that their new workers are legal.
Immigration officials report that 1,000 new employers sign up to use E-Verify each week. In fact, President Bush signed an executive order earlier this year to require all federal contractors to use the system.
While South Carolina and other states jumped onboard with E-Verify, Illinois legislators had a different opinion of the system and passed a law to prohibit employers from using E-Verify.
Under the South Carolina immigration law beginning next year, contractors that do business with the state and private employers will be required to verify new workers' legal status using either E-Verify or a South Carolina driver's license or driver's license from a state with document standards at least as strict as South Carolina. Small businesses would be required to use E-Verify by the summer of 2010, by which time, E-Verify could be long since abandoned.