Immigration law of south Carolina

The law of South California touches almost all relevant issues like, economic development of minority communities, voting rights, higher education, health care, running jail and last but not the least, immigration assistance services.

South California having its own immigration reform has still a long way to go till the enforcement of this law. The numerous state agencies engaged in this task are (1) the State Law Enforcement Division, (2) The department of Revenue, (3) the state Minority Affairs Commission, (4) the Department of Motor Vehicles, (5) the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation. These agencies still have some time in hand to be prepared in a better manner to meet the desired outcome. The enforcement deadline for private employers of 100 or more employees is July 1, 2009 and for employers of less than 100 employees the date shifts to July 1, 2010. In case of Government contractor the deadline would be comparatively earlier.

Under the new immigration law, the state will issue “employment licenses” to all the employers. In order to validate the relevance of these licenses, employers are suppose to take the responsibility of verification of employees’ legal status by checking social security number with the federal E-Verify program. The department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation is given the charge to keep a check on employers that they do verify the legal status of their employees. The verification is to be taken very seriously and only those employees would be hired who have a valid South California’s license.

As employers have a major role to play to give the meaning to enforcement of this law, there are penalties attached in case of callousness. On the first offense, an employer is given a pass and he has 72 hours to abide by the law without penalty. The offense next to it is to be taken as a first offense. On the first offense, the employment license is suspended for not less than 10 days, at least 30 days on second offense and 90 days in case of thirds one.

In order to restore the license, the employer is supposed to come up with the fine of at least $ 1,000 and he got to prove that the unauthorized employee has been fired. In the situation license being cancelled, the employer is set on experimentation for the next 3 years and the license cease to restore for 5 years.

The law gives all the right to the employees in respect of enforcement of state immigration law. It clearly states that no law should be passed by the local government that comes in way of federal or state law. No such law should come up in any way as a hindrance for employees to reach the federal or state officials to report on immigration status.

Time is the greatest spectator and would give a clear picture of how long the South Carolina’s immigration reform goes to curb the illegal immigration. The day this bill was signed into law by Govt. Mark Sanford, a federal judge objected the employer related provision. According to him, the very process of federal verification o employees was unconstitutional and it infringed upon the federal rules related to hiring of illicit employees. So, it can be concluded as per the ruling that the ultimate requirement is of a federal solution.