Thread: SC-E-verify immigration system in congressional trouble

E-verify immigration system in congressional trouble

By Tim Smith • CAPITAL BUREAU • July 31, 2008


COLUMBIA -- A federal immigration database that is the lynchpin of South Carolina's recently passed immigration law is in congressional trouble.


The E-verify system, used by almost 80,000 employers nationwide to verify new employees' legal status, is caught in separate disputes in the House and Senate that could prevent a vote on renewing the system before Congress's fall break, officials say.

Without any congressional action, the Web-based system will expire Nov. 1, throwing many state's immigration laws into turmoil, including South Carolina's.

"It's a key component of our immigration law," said Joel Sawyer, a spokesman for Gov. Mark Sanford. "We would hope Congress would recognize its value and reauthorize it. If E-verify wasn't reauthorized for some reason, we would certainly have to address that legislatively because it's such an important part of it."

Under the state's law passed this year, contractors doing business with the state as well as private companies are required to use either the E-verify system or a S.C. driver's license to verify any new workers beginning next year. Smaller firms would use the system beginning in the summer of 2010. Drivers licenses from states with document standards as stringent as South Carolina's also could be used.

Requiring E-verify was a battlecry for those in the Legislature pushing immigration reform.

Sen. David Thomas, a Greenville County Republican who supports the system, said it would not cripple the state's new law but would put a big burden on business. He said if E-verifiy fails to renew, state lawmakers will have to take another look at the law when they return in January.

Both South Carolina's senators, Lindsey Graham and Jim DeMint support E-verify and have signed a letter along with 11 other senators to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid asking that the Senate take up and pass the legislation to renew the program, according to a copy of the letter.

A spokesman for DeMint said one senator has placed a hold on the legislation, a move that will effectively keep it from being taken up until after the fall break.

“Congress is running out of time to reauthorize and even enhance E-Verify,â€

KEEP PUSHING SOUTH CAROLINA

ANCHOR BABY LAWS ARE NEXT

I hear the footsteps now with illegals heading for the border, but why is it that Congress and the administration move like sloths when it comes something that makes sense? Oh yeah, I forgot they are pandering to the illegal alien vote.