Thread: Key vote today on immigration reform in SC House

http://greenvilleonline.com/apps/pbcs.d ... 001/NEWS01

COLUMBIA -- The House today is expected to vote for the first time on the issue of requiring private employers to verify the legal status of their workers, after an agreement Tuesday with senators trying to negotiate a comprehensive immigration reform bill.


The vote was a final hurdle for members of a legislative conference committee that has worked for weeks to resolve differences between the chambers on legislation aimed at reducing the number of illegal residents in the state.

The Senate has voted four times on the issue of requirements for private employers on immigration, but the House did not address the issue in its bill.

"I'm hopeful they'll come back with a strong vote," said Sen. Jim Ritchie of Spartanburg, chairman of the conference committee.

House members on the committee last week balked at agreeing to the legislation unless the Senate removed a requirement that private employers be given the option of using the federal I-9 form to verify workers. Critics have attacked the form as open to abuse with fraudulent documents.

Removing that requirement would mean private employers would have to use a South Carolina driver's license or the federal electronic system called E-Verify.

Senators said that to remove the I-9 requirement, they would have to ask the Senate to grant them open-ended negotiating authority, an approval they were doubtful of unless the House first took a vote on the issue.

Both sides traded critical press releases last week after talks stalled. On Tuesday Senate President Pro Tempore Glenn McConnell took to the floor of the Senate to accuse the House of "becoming the graveyard of reform" and in "engaging in a masquerade of their failure to pass a tough immigration bill."

At a meeting late Tuesday afternoon, both sides agreed to an unusual process where the House would vote on the unsigned agreement first, then return it to the Senate, where senators would attempt to convince their colleagues to remove the I-9, a provision pushed by business interests.

"I think we will have clarity by the end of the week," Ritchie said afterward.

http://www.charleston.net/news/2008/apr ... tion38240/

House debates immigration
Vote expected on how employers verify workers' legal status

By Yvonne Wenger (Contact)
The Post and Courier
Wednesday, April 23, 2008

COLUMBIA — The House is expected to vote today on how far private employers must go in checking the legal status of their workers.

The vote is the next stop for the Legislature's plan to combat illegal immigration in South Carolina, but it is not the last.

After the vote, the bill will return to House and Senate negotiators, who are maneuvering in conference committee talks and are expected to meet later in the afternoon.

"We've taken four votes on private employers," Sen. Jim Ritchie said Tuesday to his House counterparts in the conference committee.

"How many votes has the House taken?"

Ritchie, a Spartanburg Republican who is leading the negotiations, said he is hopeful that the House vote will help persuade the Senate that it should take its worker verification standards one step further.

The Senate bill, as it passed the upper chamber in mid-February, would allow private employers to check if a person is legally authorized to work in the country by using a South Carolina driver's license, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's online database E-Verify or the federal I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification Form.

Although, the House's version, originally passed in late January, did not address verification standards for private employers, House negotiators placed new demands on the conference committee last week.

The House wants to remove the I-9 form as an acceptable verification method for South Carolina employees.

The issue of the I-9 form has dominated the last few months of debate on the state's illegal immigration reform plan, which altogether addresses a wide variety of matters.

Critics of the I-9 form argue that it perpetuates illegal immigration because the federal government does not penalize employers that hire workers whose legal status is not verified through the form.

E-Verify, a relatively new system, also has detractors who contend that its error rate makes it unreliable.

The latest maneuvering over the immigration bill has to do with powers the bodies will grant their respective negotiators.

Typical conference committees must work inside parameters laid out in the language of the varying bills, although negotiations on the immigration bill have moved slightly outside of those para- meters.

The House and Senate will need to seek the permission of two-thirds of the chambers to draft a final conference report with the provisions they have discussed so far.

Roan Garcia-Quintana, executive director of the Americans Have Had Enough Coalition, said the group has been rallying support for tougher worker verification standards.

The group has gotten commitments from two-thirds of the legislators in the House and Senate, enough to pass the bill without the I-9 form, he said.

"I think we almost have it," said Garcia-Quintana, a candidate for a Senate seat representing Greenville County.

Come on ALIPAC'ers. We have a campaign going on to contact the House regarding this matter. Please jump in:
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-112874.html

We are on the phones now!

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-112872.html

W

Okay, I'll jump in here shortly.

Added to Homepage:
http://www.alipac.us/article-3125--0-0.html

Roan Garcia-Quintana is currently a candidate for the SC State Senate, District 7. This guy is someone to get behind. He's the speaker in this video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZkidxcl2Ig

KEEP THEIR PHONES RINGING OFF THE HOOK!!
<<RED ALERT "ACTION NEEDED 4/28">>
Battleground: South Carolina House!
Alipac'ers please take action at link below! We need S.C!!
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-112874.html