State simplifies immigration audit process

By Ashley Fletcher Frampton

Published Oct. 2, 2009

State officials made a significant change this week to the employer audits that began July 1 under the state’s new immigration law.

The S.C. Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation is now offering a one-page statement for employers to sign affirming that they are not knowingly or intentionally employing people unauthorized to work in the United States.

The form, put in use Monday, replaces one of two audit procedures that the agency has used in the first three months that the law has been in effect for businesses with 100 or more employees.

The new immigration law, passed in 2008, sets out acceptable methods for verifying the work status of employees hired after July 1, 2009, including the inspection of driver’s licenses or the use of the federal E-Verify system.

State auditors have been asking randomly selected employers to show they are using one of the approved methods. Auditors also have been asking employers to show how they verified the work status of some employees hired before July 1.

Some in the business community had complained about the second portion of the audit. State officials said they were using the procedure to make sure employers were not “knowingly or intentionallyâ€