Residents, groups sue over state's immigration law

By KYLE PETERSON


Published Sunday, October 30, 2011


Beaufort resident Yajaira Benet-Smith has a green card, an American husband and a strong command of the English language.

Nonetheless, she worries about South Carolina's new Arizona-style immigration law, which takes effect in January.

One provision mandates that law-enforcement officers check the immigration status of anyone they detain and suspect might be in the country illegally, even during a routine traffic stop.

What will officers or deputies make of Benet-Smith's accent, if she's pulled over for speeding, she wonders.

"They are human beings," said Benet-Smith, who was born in Venezuela. "And of course they are going to hear my accent, and yes, they might think, 'You know, I don't know if this woman is undocumented or not.' "

Benet-Smith is among about a dozen individuals and organizations who filed suit in federal court earlier this month, arguing the new law is unconstitutional. The group, backed by the South Carolina branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, filed for an injunction Oct. 21 asking the court to block implementation until the case is heard.

Not everyone is sympathetic to the suit.

South Carolina officials have said they will defend the law to the U.S. Supreme Court, if necessary. Mark Plowden, communications director for S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson, said the state will file a response today.

Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner declined to comment because of the pending litigation, but said people who are in the country legally shouldn't worry about being detained.

State legislators who voted for the bill haven't backed down. Illegal immigrants in South Carolina's schools, hospitals and prisons cost taxpayers money, they have argued.

But to Benet-Smith, who considers America her home, the law feels like an attack.

"It is hard for me to believe that a state in the U.S. would adopt a law that would lead to a deepening divide between natives and non-natives," she wrote in a statement to the court. "That is not what I thought the United States stood for."

COUNTING COSTS

It's easy to dramatize opposition to the new law, but difficult to quantify -- at least locally -- the costs proponents say necessitated its enactment.

The Beaufort County School District doesn't track the number of illegal immigrants in schools, and spokesman Jim Foster said federal law bars administrators from even asking students about their citizenship.

Another federal law requires hospitals to provide emergency treatment regardless of patients' residency or ability to pay. But neither Hilton Head Hospital nor Beaufort Memorial Hospital count how many illegal immigrants end up in their emergency rooms.

"We do not track it," said Beaufort Memorial president and CEO Rick Toomey. "I don't have a sense of it at all."

Between 2008 and 2010, Beaufort County contracted with a local company, Advance Point Global, to audit employee immigration forms from county businesses.

Andy Patrick, the company's CEO and a member of the state House of Representatives, said his staff examined 15,567 immigration documents -- known as I-9 forms -- from 2,447 businesses over that period. About half had some type of problem, though often the issue was minor and resolved by the company.

However, Patrick said the audits revealed many people who appeared to be using forged documents.

That information was turned over to the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office, he said. A request for the number of arrests or citations resulting from the program is pending with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Charleston.

"It is my opinion, based on my experience, that there are thousands of people here -- just in Beaufort County, as a subset of the state -- who are here illegally and using fraudulent ID," said Patrick, who voted for the new immigration law.

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