EDITORIAL: Immigration, Round 3: MOST POPULAR STORIES

May 27, 2008 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- On no issue are South Carolinians more insistent on legislative action than immigration reform. Residents want the General Assembly to plug the federal immigration policy gaps that allow thousands of undocumented persons to live and work in the state.

Legislators have tried to satisfy the public demand for action but thus far are stalemated on how, exactly, to do so. This week, senators and representatives will make one last attempt to agree on legislation that not only makes South Carolina less hospitable to undocumented foreign workers but is also enforceable long term.

The key to the "less hospitable" challenge lies with S.C. employers who use foreign labor -- not only landscapers, hoteliers and restaurateurs but also farmers and business people who have occasional need of day labor. Thanks to lax enforcement of federal immigration rules, employers so inclined can circumvent the law. And illegal workers so inclined can make it look as though they're in the United States legally when in fact they're not.

So most representatives and senators rightly want to motivate S.C. employers to move beyond minimum federal worker verification compliance to use the online E-Verify system or to hire only workers who have valid S.C. driver's licenses. E-Verify, a joint service of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration, allows subscribers to check the Social Security numbers that foreign workers present when seeking employment. The S.C. driver's license is a useful alternative because the Department of Motor Vehicles verifies that foreigners are in the country legally before issuing them driver's licenses.

The hangup for House-Senate compromise is how severely to punish employers who don't comply with this new state requirement. The compromise that Senate President Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, will offer this week would allow a five-day grace period for employers who hire foreign workers without verification. Failure to fix that problem after five days would amount to a willful violation, at which point the state could assess fines and strip employers of the right to hire anyone.

The latter punishment -- the loss of the right to hire employees -- aroused the concern of S.C. Attorney General Henry McMaster earlier this month. Because such a provision creates an implied state business license, McMaster said, the courts could prevent the state from enforcing it. The loss of the right to do business, he said, is a penalty that only the courts can impose.

But as The Sun News reported this week, McConnell hopes to circumvent the attorney general's concern by requiring no applications or fees for this implied business license. This slick legal maneuver, he said, should ensure that the legislation survives a court challenge.

In this fashion, the Senate president hopes to mollify House leadership and Gov. Mark Sanford, who have seemed more interested in a get-tough bill that plays well with the voters but can't get past the courts. McConnell rightly wants the legislature to pass an immigration-reform bill that remains on the books until such time as Congress passes federal immigration-reform lets the states off the hook for enforcement.

The hope must be that the House and the governor sign on to that goal, too. Otherwise, all the political tough talk on cracking down on illegal immigrants could amount to so much blather. No bill at all would be better than a bill that can't work.

Newstex ID: KRTB-0119-25552832