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Will Beaufort County's illegal immigration ordinance be effective?

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A new ordinance to deter the hiring of illegal immigrants in Beaufort County took effect Tuesday, but how effective it will be is anyone's guess.

Under the ordinance, only businesses in unincorporated areas of the county will be randomly audited because the towns of Hilton Head Island and Bluffton do not have similar measures on their books.

During the audits, which have not yet begun, the county will examine businesses' immigration forms, called I-9s. Employers are required by federal law to keep copies of every employee's I-9, which contains a worker's name and Social Security number.

The county will check to see if businesses have the forms and if they seem, on their face, to be filled out correctly. County employees will not have the tools to check those names against Social Security numbers.

Federal law does not require employers to check if Social Security numbers and names match before hiring.

The federal government has a process -- which can take up to a year -- for checking I-9 forms. It then contacts businesses if names and Social Security numbers don't match.

County administrator Gary Kubic said that on the advice of lawyers, the county created a program that made sure county employees were not assuming any authority reserved for federal immigration officials.

Meanwhile, the county is still interviewing private firms to conduct the portion of the audits that look at federal immigration documents, so the actual audits have not gotten under way.

The county did, however, recently hire Jeanette Roseberry, a former naval officer, to direct the program.

In an interview Friday, County Council chairman Weston Newton said the ordinance won't eradicate all illegal hiring.

"I'm not going to tell you that the county (program) is the silver bullet, and that the federal government doesn't need to do something. They do," he said.

"But hopefully, it's a deterrent to local businesses hiring illegal immigrants."

Ebba Gamer, president of Citizens for a Better Community, said she believes the program would put a stop to illegal hiring. Otherwise, she said, "there is no sense in having it."

But Flor Chaverri of Hilton Head, who used to run a construction company, disagreed, saying while the program will go a long way in deterring illegal hiring, "it will not totally stop it."

"There will always be business owners who try to play games with (immigration officials)," she said. "Whoever dreams of eliminating all black market hiring will knock themselves out trying to do that."

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