But a slow economy has proved most effective in reducing the number of illegal workers here.
Published Tuesday, June 23, 2009
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Business owners, even those whose operations are firmly within the bounds of the law, will find themselves answering to officials more and more as South Carolina expands its efforts to crack down on illegal immigrants.

On July 1, South Carolina begins its checks of businesses that employ 100 or more employees. Public entities and private companies with more than 500 employees were required to comply with the new law beginning Jan. 1. Employers with fewer than 100 employees must begin complying by July 1, 2010.

On the surface, the purpose of the state law seems simple enough: Discourage illegal immigrants from coming to South Carolina for work, and find and punish employers who hire undocumented workers. But the law passed last year does much more than that. It covers a lot of territory: economic development for the state's minority communities, voting rights, law enforcement training, jail operations, health care, higher education, financial identity fraud, immigration assistance services, firearms and setting bond for prisoners.

Multiple state agencies are involved, including the State Law Enforcement Division, the state Minority Affairs Commission, the Department of Revenue, the Department of Motor Vehicles and the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation.

Verifying an employee's immigration status is just one section. We'll see how enforcement fares when government budgets are tight.

As with Beaufort County's own brand of immigration enforcement, state officials will use random audits to check for compliance. With that approach, educating business owners about the law is the most effective tool. Business owners have few excuses for not knowing what is required.

But the biggest brake on illegal immigration is the economy. A state with an unemployment rate that now tops 12 percent -- still the third highest in the country -- is not a great place for anyone to be looking for work.

Beaufort County's auditors have checked about a fourth of the businesses that hold county business licenses since they started their work in 2008. Advance Point Global, the company hired to audit county-licensed businesses, reports that it has located more than 1,000 suspected undocumented workers and turned that information over to the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office.

The county law also has provided a means for auditing reported gross income, a key component in determining how much is paid in business license fees. That could prove very valuable in a tight budget year.

The fallacy in this approach to immigration enforcement is that it targets businesses less likely to break the law. Businesses operating in unincorporated Beaufort County who file for business licenses are much more likely to follow other rules.

State and local officials eventually will have to go after operators who don't follow the law in general if they truly want to clamp down on illegal hiring.

In the meantime, a slow economy at least allows officials to iron out enforcement procedures and educate the business community. You can be sure when the economy improves and jobs return so will illegal immigrants ready to work for anyone who will hire them.

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plebeian wrote on 06/23/2009 07:22:07 AM:
The illegals (for the most part) are still here. What HAS improved is the phony identification they use to gain employment. With our president looking for ways to put them on a path to citizenship...why would they leave?

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