Haley: Feds not helping SC find illegal workers

JIM DAVENPORT, Associated Press

Updated 07:01 p.m., Friday, May 27, 2011

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley on Friday blamed U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano for leaving the state's illegal immigration law inspectors with nothing to do for more than a month.

Haley said Napolitano's Department of Homeland Security has been telling the state it can't use employer records from the federal E-Verify program as a tool in enforcing one of the nation's toughest illegal immigration laws. Haley said the inspectors now stand to lose their jobs.

"They are not giving us an answer and so right now we have our hands tied behind our backs in that we cannot enforce illegal immigration," Haley, a Republican, said. "They can't be serious about illegal immigration if they won't allow South Carolina to enforce their laws."

Catherine Templeton, director of the state's Labor, Licensing and Regulation Department, said she's spent months trying to get the Obama administration's Homeland Security agency to back off.

Templeton said "it became apparent that it was a political issue and they just decided that South Carolina — or that states in general — should not enforce immigration."

Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the main investigative arm of DHS, has primary responsibility for enforcing the nation's immigration laws. A number of states have passed laws seeking to crack down on illegal immigration.

Templeton said the agency only wants to see enough E-Verify information to show that employers are checking immigration status when hiring. But employers, she said, are barred from providing that information to the state when they sign up to use the E-Verify program.

An agency spokesman did not respond to questions about Haley's complaints on Friday.

The Homeland Security department appears to be trying to make the E-Verify program less vulnerable to bogus information that prospective workers may provide. It's asked Mississippi, for instance, for driver's license information and has been adding U.S. passport and green card photos to the system.

Meanwhile the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-3 decision Thursday, upheld Arizona's illegal immigration law, which like South Carolina, requires employers to use the E-Verify system.

Napolitano is a former Democratic governor from Arizona.

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