SC Lawmakers Send Tougher Illegal Immigration Bill to Governor

[Jeanfromfillmore]

SC Lawmakers Send Tougher Illegal Immigration Bill to Governor
COLUMBIA, S.C. --
South Carolina lawmakers have given their final approval to a tougher illegal immigration bill and sent it to Gov. Nikki Haley's desk, but critics say it would cost millions and are urging her to veto it, saying they'll sue the state if it becomes law.
The House voted 69 to 43 Tuesday evening to give the bill final approval.
It would require local police in South Carolina to check the immigration status of anyone they suspect is here illegally. The check has to follow an arrest or traffic stop for some other violation and the officer must have probable cause to suspect the person is here illegally.
The bill also requires all businesses to check the legal status of anyone they hire by using the online federal E-Verify system.
Sen. David Thomas, R-Greenville, one of the co-sponsors of the bill says, "How large a problem is it? Well, we're seeing more and more usage of illegals of our system, of (our) hospital system, of everything else, so it does have an impact and we have to get it under control."
A coalition of 21 faith and civil rights groups is urging Gov. Haley to veto the bill, saying it will encourage racial profiling. The coalition includes the NAACP, the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and the SC Appleseed Legal Justice Center. That coalition, along with the national ACLU, Southern Poverty Law Center and National Immigration Law Center, say they will sue the state if the bill becomes law.
Tammy Besherse, staff attorney for the SC Appleseed Legal Justice Center, says, "Certain provisions of the law are left to the federal government, and immigration has a lot of rules about the federal government being in charge."
She says it has cost Arizona millions to fight the legal challenges to its law and the state has also lost millions in tourism and conventions because of boycotts.
Cecillia Wang, director of the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project, says, "Not only does this bill mimic Arizona’s notorious S.B. 1070, it goes even further by attempting to create South Carolina’s own immigration enforcement agency authorized to detain people based solely on how they look or talk. If the governor signs this bill, we are prepared to stand up for the civil liberties of all South Carolinians just as we have in every state that has passed similar copycat bills.”

But supporters say since this bill is based on the Arizona law and was updated after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on it recently, there's no reason to think the South Carolina law wouldn't hold up in court.
Gov. Haley's spokesman says she will sign the bill.
There are also questions about the enforcement of the law. The bill would add ten officers at the Department of Public Safety who would act as an illegal immigration police force. But those officers will have to be hired, they and local officers will have to receive training on how to conduct the checks and the state will have to determine where it will hold anyone they find is here illegally. Federal law requires illegal immigrants to be held in a detention facility that is federally approved for that purpose. South Carolina has only three of those facilities in the state right now.
Besherse says a local police officer will have to check the legal status of someone he pulls over, if there's a reason to think the person is here illegally. But unless he's had federal training, he's not allowed to check the status, so he'll have to try to get in touch with one of the new state immigration police officers to do it. How long should he detain the driver? What if he can't reach anyone who can check the person's status?
DPS director Mark Keel says, "There's a lot of unanswered questions. We're in that process right now where we're trying to get the answers to these questions, because there are concerns and there are issues that we've got to figure out how to work out."
Part of the law would take effect on January 1, 2012, while the part dealing with the new state immigration police at the Department of Public Safety would take effect when funding was available. Keel thinks it would take a year to 18 months to implement the enforcement of the law because of the need to recruit Spanish-speaking officers and get them the federal training they would need.

http://www2.wspa.com/news/2011/jun/2...ll-ar-2012427/

[Rim05]

A coalition of 21 faith and civil rights groups is urging Gov. Haley to veto the bill, saying it will encourage racial profiling. The coalition includes the NAACP, the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and the SC Appleseed Legal Justice Center. That coalition, along with the national ACLU, Southern Poverty Law Center and National Immigration Law Center, say they will sue the state if the bill becomes law.

Those are the groups who are against control of any/all illegal activity, plus more.