Thread: S.C. businesses face deadline to comply with state law

S.C. businesses face deadline to comply with state law aimed at illegal immigrationBy NOELLE PHILLIPS06/08/08 11:00:07Related Content
http://www.thestate.com/


The clock is ticking for thousands of S.C. businesses to figure out how they will comply with a new state law aimed at curbing illegal immigration.

Beginning Jan. 1, any company doing business with state and local governments will have to use a federal electronic database to verify new workers' names and Social Security numbers - or require an S.C. driver's license from newly hired workers.

By July 2010, all employers will have to comply.
The intent of the law, signed by Gov. Mark Sanford last week, is to discourage illegal immigrants from moving into the state by making it difficult to find a job.

Legislators said the law is the toughest in the nation.

Now, businesses - ranging from small landscapers to the largest corporations - are trying to figure out its impact, especially how it will affect hiring.

Most businesses say they want to hire legal employees but, at the same time, don't want to be the immigration police.

"Basically, this law is asking every employer to become an immigration enforcement officer," said Ken Carey, owner of Agil Staff, a Columbia, S.C., employment agency that specializes in placing bilingual workers.

Just this week, Carey met a client who gave him a New York driver's license for identification.

"Right now, I'm allowed to hire him. But, as of July 2010, I will not be able to put him to work" right away, Carey said.

The employee-screening requirements are just one part of the law, which includes more than a dozen provisions. Others bar illegal immigrants from attending state colleges and owning guns and set up a hot line at the S.C. Minority Affairs Commission.

Politicians felt pressure to pass an immigration law because of public outcry. Those who demanded an immigration law said the state must step in because the federal government has failed to act. They blame illegal immigration for placing undue taxpayer-financed burdens on S.C. schools, law enforcement and hospitals.

Government agencies also are making plans for the new law.

It should cost the state $419,000 to enact the law during its first year and an additional $300,000 a year afterward, said Mike Sponhour, spokesman for the S.C. Budget and Control Board. That's just a fraction of the state's general fund budget of $7 billion for next year.

The S.C. Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation will be responsible for enforcing the employment-verification piece.

The agency is working on how to do that, said spokesman Jim Knight. "We're already starting to get calls from employers wanting to know how this is going to work," he said.

Businesses found in violation of the law could lose their right to do business in South Carolina and are subject to fines.

The federal government's database, known as E-Verify, has been controversial.

Last week, a U.S. District Court judge in Oklahoma postponed enforcement of a similar law.

The Oklahoma Chamber of Commerce, along with three other business groups, sued that state over its law requiring that contractors doing public work use E-verify.

In an injunction, the judge said the business groups had legitimate concerns, and it was likely the state law conflicted with federal law.

The judge wrote the injunction should remain in place until courts decide how far states can go in regulating immigration, a federal responsibility.

The E-verify system is in its experimental stages.

Proponents of the federal database, including S.C. state Sen. Jim Ritchie, R-Spartanburg, a chief architect of the new law, say it is the best system available.

However, critics say it is unreliable. The system does not detect identity theft, only verifying a name and Social Security number match.

Many employment lawyers recommended their clients stop using E-verify in 2007 after a meat-packing company, based in Colorado, was raided. Hundreds of workers were detained for being in the country illegally even though the company had been using the federal database.

Carey, the owner of Agil Staff, has used E-verify in the past but quit after his lawyers advised him to stop.
He uses two outside companies to help screen potential employees and run background checks. He will continue to use those methods after the new law goes into effect.

Overall, Carey isn't convinced the new bill will drive illegal immigrants out of South Carolina. After all, those already working in the state will not have to undergo identity checks at their current jobs, he said.

"This law will impact employers and those that we hire after the law takes effect," Carey said.

Small businesses with fewer than 100 employees won't have to comply with the law until July 2010. But larger private companies will have to follow it by next summer.

Human resources and legal staffs at some of the Midlands' largest companies are researching the bill to figure out how it might affect hiring.

Palmetto Health expects the employment-screening requirements to cost extra money, said Tammie Epps, a spokeswoman for the region's largest health care system. However, Palmetto Health does not plan to hire new employees to do the screening, she said.

At BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina, officials are beginning to go through the 40-page bill to figure out its impact, said spokeswoman Elizabeth Hammond. The insurer already performs background checks on employees because they handle sensitive health care information.

"We take all that very seriously," she said.

The new law is more likely to affect the construction, landscaping and poultry industries, which rely on immigrant labor.

Alejandro Dominguez owns a Charleston company that installs granite and marble countertops. He has five employees. All are illegal immigrants, he said.

Dominguez said he hired illegal immigrants because they work for $15 an hour, less than what legal residents would demand. The lower wages help him keep his prices competitive, he said.

"I don't see why I have to lose all my workers when I really like them," he said. "My business is very small."

If he loses his workers, Dominguez said he won't be able to focus on sales. Instead, he will have to install countertops by himself. Or he will raise prices so he can afford to pay higher wages.

"I can't do all the work alone."



http://www.fresnobee.com/641/story/654005.html

Dominguez said he hired illegal immigrants because they work for $15 an hour, less than what legal residents would demand. The lower wages help him keep his prices competitive, he said.

And there you have it, however I question whether he is actually paying that...probably more like 7-8 bucks an hour. That's what they do it for around here. There is a marble and granite in the same warehouse complex as mine.

I lived in SC for nearly 4 years. Greer SC seems to be one of the worst places for illegals to congregate. I'm glad to see something being done about this. I do worry about neighboring states and the impact that it will have. (I now live in NC, and I'm certain that they'll make their way here next.)

Since I got here 3 years ago which by the way I am now a legal immigrant. I saw how illegals roming around the area where I go to shop and work place where my husbands works. Day after day and weeks afters weeks it seems that they are growing in numbers and my husband business goes down because of this cheap labor practices that some US citizens are practicing for their own benefit.

Now that there is a Law to be enforce, I hope that this will open the doors again to those small businesses that for sometime give up and help again restore and hire fellow Americans and be a part of the workforce to build this country.........Janne The Lone Protestor's wife