SC County’s Innovative Business Auditing Program Curbs Illegal Employment
By Jessica Vaughan, January 10, 2009

Beaufort County has made great strides in creating a lawful employment environment in the South Carolina Low Country by implementing a creative and pioneering auditing program to help local businesses achieve compliance with immigration laws while exposing problems with fraudulent documents that enable illegal workers to get jobs. The effectiveness of this effort is further enhanced by strong state laws on illegal hiring and the county’s participation in the 287(g) program. These enable local law enforcement agencies to prosecute violators and have illegal workers removed. Local officials report signs that the illegal alien population in Beaufort County has been noticeably reduced.

The ordinance establishing the business license audit program was enacted by the county council, with the support of senior county managers, in response to concerns in the community about rampant growth and development in the region that was accomplished at least in part by the widespread hiring of illegal workers in the construction, landscaping and hospitality industries. Local business owners complained to county officials about losing opportunities to companies who undercut them with low labor costs made possible by hiring illegal aliens.

The county leaders researched their options and settled on an innovative approach. All county businesses (except for those that operate only in certain incorporated cities) needed to be licensed annually and pay a fee scaled according to their revenue. The new ordinance added the requirement that businesses comply with federal hiring laws by verifying the immigration status of their employees through the long-established I-9 process. In addition, the county would conduct random audits to ensure that businesses had complied and that they were reporting their revenues accurately. The county hired a local company, Advance Point Global, that specialized in background checks and identification issues, to conduct the audits. The goal is to inspect all of the 4,000+ county businesses within four years. The funding for the audits comes from the license fees, which had recently been raised to align with other jurisdictions in the area.

Since April, when the audits began, more than 7,000 I-9 forms at 894 companies have been inspected. The results have surprised everyone. In the first four months, 27% of the I-9s inspected were judged by the auditor as non-compliant. In July, Advance Point Global consulted with ICE, gave its auditors additional training, and aligned its criteria with federal standards. Over the period August-December, the auditors found that an astonishing 67% of the I-9s inspected were non-compliant. Some of the deficiencies were considered relatively minor, but others involved missing or misplaced information or unacceptable documentation of identity and/or work authorization.

Not all of these violations would necessarily result in federal immigration charges of knowingly hiring illegal workers if discovered by ICE. In some cases the employers simply were not well informed about the requirements. But they could be paperwork violations that might result in fines in the event of an official ICE audit. So this is not just another layer of regulation -- the county is truly providing a service to its employers by educating them on the rules and preemptively nudging them into compliance before they might come under federal scrutiny.
The ordinance does provide for sanctions (potential loss of license) if employers fail to correct themselves after an audit. But County Administrator Gary Kubic told me that they have not had to impose any sanctions, because businesses are cooperating so far. He has observed what he describes as a “braking effectâ€