SC Follows AZ
And maybe not just in the alphabet. South Carolina is already headed down a track to approve an illegal-immigration law that closely mirrors the one that has landed Arizona in a legal battle with the U.S. Department of Justice.
A state Senate bill that would empower local police to check the immigration status of anyone they stopped or detained – similar in scope to Arizona’s law – was filed during this year’s legislative session, but too late for it to be voted on to become law this year, according to this report from The State.
Critics of South Carolina’s proposed law charge that its late introduction into the legislative session smacks of little but political grandstanding, and it’s unclear whether the state could even afford, literally, to enforce it.
As part of the state’s Immigration Reform Act, adopted two years ago, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division was directed to enter into agreements with the U.S. Departments of Justice and Homeland Security that would allow state and local law enforcement agencies to enforce federal immigration laws. That hasn’t been done yet because there’s no funding in place to enforce those laws, SLED Director Reggie Lloyd told legislators during a committee hearing for the newly proposed law.
Still, South Carolina is gaining national attention as one of the odds-on-favorites to be the next state to enact a law similar to the one being challenged in Arizona.
Ironically, one of the last pieces of South Carolina’s Immigration Reform Act, which requires employers to use the E-Verify system to check the legal status of employees and includes penalties of fines and possible loss of business license for failing to get that verification, went into full effect on July 1, a scant five days before the U.S. DOJ filed its lawsuit against Arizona.
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