Illegal Immigrants: Dorchester County Ordinance

Monday, Jun 18, 2007 - 05:57 PM

By Gray Hall

July first-- a new ordinance goes into effect in Dorchester County. It revokes the business license of anybody who hires illegal immigrants. For Dorchester County Councilman Mike Murphree, illegal immigrants are an issue. He wants to punish any business that hires them. He says, “I catch you with knowingly hiring an illegal alien, I want to charge you upwards of 500 dollar fine or 30 days in jail that is our statutory limitations that we can offer." Murphree says, "The way this things works is from a letter or correspondence from the accuser to us and planning and codes and that is where it starts." He says the ordinance is not tough enough and says, "It needs to be beefed up its needs some teeth to it. I mean right now you have got the paper tiger, oooh I took your business license. All that does is I really didn't want to work in Dorchester County so I will just go back to Berkeley or Charleston." He says one flaw is trying to determine if a worker is actually illegal. Murphree says the ordinance is not about racial profiling but upholding the law. He wants to hire one code enforcement officer to help enforce the ordinance. The initial cost would be about 60 to 65 thousand dollars. Count on two to keep you posted.

http://www.wcbd.com/midatlantic/cbd/new ... -0030.html