Thread: S.C. targets illegals

S.C. targets illegals

Legislation could have big effect on workplace, health care, police

By Noah Haglund
The Post and Courier
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Legislation could have big effect on workplace, health care, police


Immigration bills
Senate Bill 392

House Bill 4400

Lawmakers are laying out a giant unwelcome mat for illegal immigrants with a bill that strives to be among the toughest in the nation. Yet for all its proposals, the law's chilly sentiment might be its strongest weapon.

Half of the law's amendments restate existing law. For example, it would ban undocumented immigrants from owning guns, already a federal regulation.

The other proposals might become so burdensome to apply and enforce that the law essentially would be futile. Would citizens seeking Medicaid — a benefit already barred to illegal immigrants — be required to complete affidavits witnessed by notary publics?

Constituents who demanded a tough approach complain the bill is toothless. State legislators say their hands are tied by federal law regulating immigration. Still, they want to send the federal government a strong message by doing what they can as a state.

If South Carolina's bill becomes law, the state will join more than 40 states that have passed laws against undocumented immigrants. Reports from other states with these laws, such as Arizona and Colorado, suggest illegal immigrants are leaving for other states or returning to their native countries.

To see how the bill might play out, The Post and Courier talked to scores of people who would most feel the effects of reform — immigrants, employers, and social and health care workers:

--Undocumented men and women don't always understand the law, but they know the mood is changing. Fear of deportation is palpable.

--Employers speak of dilemmas verifying the status of new hires. What can they do without tools to examine false documents? Do they risk an anti-discrimination lawsuit if they probe too deeply?

--Doctors and nurses worry that illegal immigrants will be too afraid to seek care for their children. They've seen fear keep people away from needed attention. Following a raid at a business or a home, the number of Latinos seeking care drops for as long as a month.

Existing law

The bill is riddled with proposals already covered by existing law. State lawmakers contend that restating federal law would at least give prosecutors another tool.

One amendment would bar illegal immigrants from receiving public benefits. Yet calls to more than a dozen state, county and municipal agencies confirmed that illegal immigrants are currently forbidden from receiving a wide range of benefits, such as food stamps and subsidized housing.

Another proposal would ban illegal immigrants from public colleges. But college is already a stretch for illegal immigrants. Many institutions screen for citizenship. Those who are not citizens do not qualify for government loans and are charged out-of-state tuition.

New law

The bill's strongest legal muscle could be a requirement for local jails to check the immigration status of all those arrested — a move that could lead to a significant number of deportations.

Currently, a person in the country illegally is likely to be able to post bail, just like anyone else.

Other states that have passed stricter immigration measures have started screening inmates charged with driving under the influence and felony offenses. But South Carolina would go further, checking everyone booked into a jail. That could apply to relatively minor charges, such as driving without a license or public disorderly conduct.

That didn't bother Justino Vazquez-Sandoval, 52, a construction worker from Oaxaca, Mexico, who is here illegally. Anybody who steps out of line should be sent back home, in his opinion. They make people like him look bad.

"We just come here to work," he said in Spanish. "I'm not saying that we're supposed to have rights like everybody else."

Checking immigration status would require a partnership with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Similar arrangements exist with 36 law enforcement agencies throughout the United States and have helped identify more than 40,000 potential immigration violations since late 2005, an ICE spokesman in Washington said.

Nobody knows who will pay for the partnerships or whether ICE has the resources to deport all those arrested by state officials.

Unknown law

A big question mark in the bill is how health care will be provided. The legislation would prohibit state-funded health care, except for prenatal care, children and emergencies, including birth.

But what about the adult who needs antibiotics for an infected wound? If care is denied, the problem could balloon into a far more expensive problem in the emergency room.

Already, immigrants too often turn to emergency rooms for primary care. By closing the doors of community clinics to illegal immigrants, hospitals could face even more expenses.

The full consequences of the bill are unknown.

While the law is debated in the Statehouse, a more powerful anti-immigration force has already begun to work — the worsening economy.

Amadeo Gonzalez Morales, a 46-year-old illegal immigrant who lives in North Charleston, feels the pinch. Gonzalez could only land a half day of construction work on a recent Wednesday. The job paid about $30 — not enough to send anything home to his wife and six children in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas. First, he must pay utilities and rent, costs he splits with five other men.

Many illegal immigrants like him say the decision to enter the U.S. illegally isn't a stark choice between right and wrong — it's survival.

"I crossed the border out of necessity," he said. "Not because I want to, because I have to."

In the end, necessity might send him back home. Supporting his family is his sole reason for coming here, he said.

As available work diminishes, wages appear to be dropping. Unskilled day-labor jobs that used to pay $8 to $10 an hour now usually pay about $6.

Gonzalez says he might stay another half-year, or a year, then he'll go. Perhaps sooner.

If laws get tougher, he said, "I'll grab my bags and go back to Mexico."

And that's exactly what legislators pressing for the new state law want Gonzalez and others to do.





What the bill says

The most recent version of the general immigration bill proposes 15 major changes, some of which contradict each other, restate existing law or would require an employer to admit to hiring an unauthorized employee:

1. All businesses would have to verify employees' legal status in one of three ways: maintaining federal I-9 forms, checking for a valid South Carolina driver's license or an equivalent form of identification, or using the federal government's E-Verify database. State- and local-government employers, and contractors who do business with them, would have stricter requirements.*

2. Jails would have to check the immigration status of all inmates.

3. Businesses offering immigration assistance would have to post an easily visible sign about services they cannot perform. This would apply to notary publics, among others.

4. People 18 or older receiving benefits from a state or local agency would have to sign a document saying they are living in the U.S. lawfully.

5. No local ordinance could contradict state or federal law.

6. Businesses would not be able to claim the wages of any unauthorized employee earning $600 or more a year as a state income tax deduction.

7. Businesses would have to withhold 6 percent of an employee's wages for state income taxes if the employee cannot provide a valid tax identification number.

8. It would be a felony to smuggle illegal immigrants into South Carolina or conceal them from law enforcement.*

9. Illegal immigrants would have to pay back any public benefits they have received through the use of false documents.

10. Illegal immigrants could not own, rent or borrow guns.

11. The State Law Enforcement Division would sign a memorandum of understanding with the federal government about enforcing immigration laws.





12. Anybody fired from a job and replaced by an illegal immigrant would have the right to sue.





13. Illegal immigrants could not attend state colleges or universities.





14. A state grand jury could investigate identity fraud and forgery cases related to unlawful immigration.





15. Judges could consider immigration status when setting bail.





By the numbers

State officials have estimated the number of illegal immigrants in South Carolina to be about 200,000, more than 4 percent of the population.

University of South Carolina professors released a report in August analyzing the lives of Latinos.

The report does not distinguish documented and undocumented people.





Demographically

62% - Latinos of Mexican origin.

4.8 years - Average length of time Latinos stay in state.

7.9 years - National average length of time Latinos stay.

> 50% - Speak no English or only a few words.





In schools

3.7% - Latino students in state public schools.

40% - Latino students who are fluent in English and fully integrated.





In health care

84% - Latinos who describe their health as "good" or "very good."

Nearly half - Latinos who do not seek medical treatment because of a lack of health insurance or because of lack of need.

1.6% - Latinos' percentage of all hospital discharges in the state in 2005.





In the workplace

+1.2% - 2000-05 change in median wages for full-time white South Carolina workers.

-1% - 2000-05 change in median wages for black South Carolinians.

-9.6% - 2000-05 change in median wages for Latinos.

Construction - Primary employment sector for Latinos.

Animal slaughtering - Second-largest employment sector for Latinos.

Landscaping services - Third-largest employment sector.

Overall, for each of three largest sectors with a Latino work force in South Carolina, blacks either lost jobs, saw earnings decline, or both.





In poverty

25.7% - Latinos in South Carolina who lived in poverty in 2005.

25.1% - Blacks in South Carolina who lived in poverty in 2005.

9.3% - White in South Carolina who lived in poverty in 2005.









Comments from the S.C. Legislature

'Most people want to be compassionate and treat people in a humane way. At the same time, the law needs to be respected.'

— Rep. Leon Stavrinakis, D-Charleston, supporter





'People in South Carolina are demanding reforms both at the state and the federal level. We've answered their call at the state level as strongly as we can.'

— Sen. Jim Ritchie, R-Spartanburg, sponsor





'The taxpayers are subsidizing illegal immigration. This country is being overrun by illegal immigrants because of the failure in Washington. We don't need this state to become a magnet for illegal immigrants.'

— Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, supporter





'We are enforcing the law. The federal government is not doing that.'

— House Speaker Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, sponsor





'We have a state law that says you have to comply with federal law. It means nothing.'

— Sen. Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, critical of the bill





'I'm not sure what this bill will be able to do. It's a federal issue. And I question if we have the resources to do what (the bill) requires.'

— Rep. David Mack, D-North Charleston, opposes the bill

http://www.charleston.net/news/2008/feb ... gals30833/

Constituents who demanded a tough approach complain the bill is toothless. State legislators say their hands are tied by federal law regulating immigration. Still, they want to send the federal government a strong message by doing what they can as a state.
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How about sending a strong message to the illegal aliens and their employers?

Posted on Mon, Feb. 18, 2008
S.C. immigration bill analyzed

House speaker: Illegal workers will leave, opening jobs

The Associated Press
South Carolina's attempt to reduce the number of illegal immigrants in the state by requiring employers to confirm the status of their workers won't harm the economy, experts and the speaker of the House say.

"The way the bill is structured right now, I don't see a negative impact on employers," said Elaine Lacy, a University of South Carolina professor who has studied the state's immigrant and Hispanic populations.

Still, she said, there isn't enough precedent from similar measures around the country to determine whether the bill would reduce the number of illegal immigrants.

"I know that Bobby Harrell has said that one reason to pass legislation like this is it causes undocumented workers to leave," Lacy said, referring to the House speaker. "We're not sure that's the case."

Harrell said the bill could open up jobs for South Carolinians. The state has had one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation for better than a year. The jobless rate jumped to 6.6 percent in December, putting South Carolina behind just Michigan and Mississippi for the highest rate in the nation.

"You have folks in South Carolina looking for jobs and would take those jobs and improve the unemployment rate by 1 percentage point," Harrell said.

The bill also prohibits illegal immigrants from attending public colleges, bars them from getting state scholarships to private colleges, creates a felony for harboring or transporting illegal immigrants and allows fired workers to sue their employers if they're replaced by an illegal immigrant.

The bill passed the Senate last week and now heads to the House.

But USC economist Doug Woodward said the current economic downturn, rather than anything the General Assembly might do, may be driving some immigrant workers away, legal or not. Construction jobs are the most visible part of the Hispanic labor force, he said, and those jobs are disappearing with the housing crunch.

"I think we're going to see a leveling off if not a drop overall in the immigrant population as a result of that," he said. "The industry is in a down cycle, and that could lead immigrants to go where there are better opportunities."

Lacy also said the part of the bill affecting government benefits has little to do with why immigrants come to the U.S. anyway.

"They come here because they need to feed their families," she said. "And most of them who come here think this is temporary."



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Fast fact
The state jobless rate jumped to 6.6 percent in December, putting South Carolina behind just Michigan and Mississippi for the highest rate in the nation.

http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/news/l ... 53863.html

Feb. 15, 2008

...you are weeks behind. This week the Senate amended the bill to include
private employers. The amended bill will come back to the House for review.

This Tuesday the House Judiciary Committee debated a Constitutional
Amendment on allowing a ballot question to amend the Constitution for
Constitutional officers Restructuring, among other things, but not immigration.

Last week the full House approved with amendments both bills and sent
them to the Senate.

Anyway, I think we are getting closer to a bill that does all that we
can in SC to protect legal citizens from this invasion.

However, these measures are not going to solve the problem.
Only action by the Federal government to secure OUR border,
and not the southern border of Mexico, is going to do that.

Thank you for taking your time to write, and I hope this is helpful.

Garry R. Smith
South Carolina House of Representatives
District 27
Greenville County
www.garrysmith.org