Thread: Immigration Bill Divides South Carolina Business Sector

Immigration Bill Divides South Carolina Business Sector

Published February 25, 2011

Businessmen in South Carolina who depend on immigrant labor are finding themselves in the midst of a heated debate between those who favor and are opposed to an anti-immigrant bill.

SB20 has already been approved in the state Senate judiciary committee and it is expected that it will be brought to a vote very soon with a very good chance of passing in the Republican-controlled body.

The measure requires police departments to review the immigration status of people suspected of and arrested for committing a crime or even a minor infraction, such as a traffic violation.

Defenders of undocumented immigrants argue that SB20 will lead to racial profiling by law enforcement.

South Carolina already has one of the strongest immigration laws in the country, which levies fines on firms that hire undocumented workers and obligates them to use the federal E-Verify program to ensure that their labor force has permission to work in the country.

"At the point where we're debating a measure that's going to be detrimental in an unfair way to the same people who produce their goods and services, where are the representatives of all these productive areas?" asked Ivan Segura, a member of the South Carolina Hispanic Leadership Council, a group leading opposition to SB20.

Sectors like agriculture, construction, the hotel industry, restaurants and food services depend in large part on immigrant labor.

"We're following very closely the development of SB20 but we feel that this does not directly attack employers but rather the workers," Russell Ott of the South Carolina Farm Bureau told Efe.

Even so, he said, "we're competing with other states for labor and passing (the bill) would put us at a disadvantage, many believe it's unconstitutional, we don't need another immigration law, there are more important issues like unemployment and fixing the economy."

Tammy Besherse, an attorney with the South Carolina Appleseed Legal Justice Center, says the silence or neutrality within the business sector is due to several factors.

"Not giving the impression that they approve of immigrants who are in the country without papers and that they hire them for their companies, and showing that they don't believe in the law could drive potential customers away and affect their businesses," she told Efe.

The South Carolina Chamber of Commerce, representing some 18,000 firms with more than 1 million employees, decided not to take a position with regard to SB20.

According to Elaine Lacy, a researcher at the University of South Carolina Aiken, if undocumented immigrants leave, the state would lose $1.8 billion in consumer spending, $783 million in production and about 12,000 jobs.

Recent figures made public by the Pew Hispanic Center show that the undocumented population in South Carolina fell by 21.4 percent between 2007 and 2010, from 70,000 to 55,000, respectively.

Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2 ... z1EysduSpZ

will lead to racial profiling

BROKEN RECORD!

Somebody please fix that needle.................

there are more important issues like unemployment and fixing the economy

Guess what dumba.. that will fix many problems with unemployment and balance budgets and economy

QUIT PANDERING TO ILLEGALS!

Sectors like agriculture, construction, the hotel industry, restaurants and food services depend in large part on immigrant labor.

Not too many years ago they did not rely on this labor. These industries are like drug addicts,in that they are hooked or addicted to CHEAP LABOR.

And what all these people forget is, that in years past these laborers had passports or work visas to allow them to work here in the US. Many of them today are coming in illegally or allowing their visas to expire since they are depending on anti-illegal groups to get them amnesties as in the past.

So they are actually breaking other laws now. Civil disobedience and producers and/or users of fraudulent papers and ssn's

drug addict comparison is right! And this racial profiling is non sense, Hispanic is not a race!

Sectors like agriculture, construction, the hotel industry, restaurants and food services depend in large part on immigrant labor.

Keep pushing for illegals and soon there will be no taxpayers who can afford staying in hotels, eating in restaurants or buying homes. Let's not forget we won't be able to afford produce either.

Keep it up and these businesses will be out of business sooner rather than later.

My husband works installing and repairing manufacturing robotic machines that grind parts, etc. He travels throughout the southeast. More than 50% of his time is spent in South Carolina - why? Because business is booming in South Carolina.

More than Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Alabama and North Carolina combined.

He actually met one of his co-workers in a motel in SC, they were both working in the same town at different businesses! They both live within 10 miles of each other in Georgia, where we are drowning in illegals and they continue to remove the teeth from our immigration enforcement bills.

We are counting on retiring to SC if we can sell our home.

Defenders of undocumented immigrants argue that SB20 will lead to racial profiling by law enforcement.

Lets consider this, immigration laws aside. This argument implies that every LEO nationwide practices racism when applying any laws to non-white citizens.

Take it one step further and you could conclude that only white Americans should be subject to any and every law on the books.

I KNOW such statements are absurd, just as absurd as stating "enforcing immigration law will lead to racial profiling!"