State employment verification law takes effect July 1

A new state law that goes into effect July 1 will require private businesses with more than 100 employees to verify the residency status of their workers or face fines and loss of their business licenses.

The law, called the S.C. Illegal Immigration Reform Act, was signed by Gov. Mark Sanford last year to discourage undocumented workers from migrating to the Palmetto State. It requires employers to verify residency on new employees within five days of the hire. Public offices and private companies with more than 500 employees were required to comply with the new law beginning Jan. 1.

Businesses found to have undocumented workers on the payroll would have to fire them immediately. They also would face fines as high as $1,000 and could have their business licenses revoked after the third offense. State officials will turn over information on suspected undocumented workers to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency.

Companies with fewer than 100 employees must begin complying with the new regulations by July 1, 2010.

Investigators with S.C. Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation will randomly audit companies' personnel files to check compliance, department spokesman Jim Knight said. Regulators also will investigate complaints filed against companies suspected of employing illegal immigrants. A complaint form will be placed on the LLR Web site sometime next month, Knight said. A full breakdown of the law can be found a www.llr.state.sc.us/immigration.

Several business owners and managers in the area said Tuesday they didn't expect any staffing problems because of the new regulations.

There are skeptics of the new law, however.

Eric Esquivel, publisher of La Isla magazine, said he doesn't condone illegal immigration, but feels public discussion of the issue has been skewed by "get-tough" policies. Such laws can create "a double-edge sword that will lead to discrimination and profiling toward all Latinos," he said.

"When you think about the Hilton Head area or this community, we really need to talk about real workable reform and take a serious look at economic contributions of the Latino community," Esquivel said.

He feels resources would be better spent on a comprehensive immigration reform that would address the needs of the community.

State meets county regulation

The new law is similar in some ways to a Beaufort County ordinance passed three years ago that requires businesses to submit to audits of I-9 Employment Verification Forms. The ordinance is aimed at making sure employees of businesses in the county are in the country legally. It also allows auditors to determine whether businesses are up to date on their tax payments to the county.

Andy Patrick, president of Advance Point Global, which conducts the Beaufort County audits, said the state law and county ordinance require investigators to looks for the information through different means.

Beaufort County auditors search through the federally regulated I-9 forms and Social Security numbers while state regulators search through personnel records and the required verification checks.

Advance Point Global has audited more than 1,100 of the county's 4,000 licensed businesses since beginning audits in 2008. The company has located more than 1,000 suspected undocumented workers and turned that information over to the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office, Patrick said.

Sheriff P.J. Tanner said the county ordinance and state law will help deputies and immigration agents locate workers who are in the country illegally.

"Ultimately, if businesses were complying with the law we would have no job market for foreign-born illegals," Tanner said. "That's not the case, so these laws and ordinances are needed."

It will take some time, however, to know whether the state and county laws are effective because the bad economy has forced several businesses that might hire illegal immigrants to cut back on hiring, Tanner said.

"We'll reap huge benefits from this, I'm sure of that, but it will take some time to know," he said. "... But what will be really beneficial to local businesses through all of this is they're being educated on the law and the rules. Education is the most important part because it almost always brings compliance with the law."