Only 12 days remain in the 2008 session of your General Assembly, and as usual this time of year, the workload is picking up dramatically. Several significant pieces of legislation moved in the House this week including a bill restricting illegal immigration, a bill abolishing parole, and two bills regarding alcohol use.
For the sixth time in two years, the House has approved an illegal immigration bill. The latest bill requires all employers to use the federal e-verify system or a valid S.C. drivers’ license to check the legal status of their employees. We eliminated a proposal that would create a new state I-9 form and a new bureaucracy with an as-yet unknown number of new state employees.
Employers who have tried the federal e-verify system have found that the system is free, quick, and simple to use, and the requirements for our state’s drivers’ licenses are among the toughest in the nation. While the Senate has thus far resisted tougher usage of the e-verify system that the House is pushing, the bill takes a number of important steps to protect the rights of all workers, whether they are citizens, or immigrants who choose to follow the law and come here legally to make a better life for themselves and their families.
The legislation allows fired workers to sue their former employers if they're replaced by illegal workers within two months.
It creates a felony for creating false documents.
It bans illegal immigrants from attending public colleges and winning taxpayer- funded scholarships.
It also makes it a felony to transport or harbor illegal workers, though it provides reasonable exceptions for some charities, such as homeless shelters, which could get caught unexpectedly.
The immigration bill now goes back to the Senate for the third time this year.
In addition to illegal immigration, the House Judiciary Committee, which I am a member, approved a bill this week that will abolish parole and create a new court for non-violent drug offenders. This bill requires all prisoners to serve at least 85 percent of their sentences, and will allow judges to decide who is eligible to go to a new drug court, where offenders can be sentenced to intensive drug rehab programs instead of prison time. The Attorney General estimates taxpayers will save more than $500 million a year if 50 people per judicial circuit go through the rehab program instead of jail.
Unfortunately, slick tricks by Democrats opposed to the bill delayed the vote on it until this week. That means the bill will require two-thirds of the Senators to consider the bill, which will be an uphill climb. The bill is expected to be on the House floor next week.
Also this week:
The Judiciary Committee voted to ban a device that turns liquor into a breathable vapor of oxygen and alcohol. Several other states have banned the devices.
Republicans on the House floor essentially killed a proposal supported by Democrats that would allow liquor sales on Election Day.
Thank you for the privilege of serving you in Columbia. If I can ever be of assistance to you, or if you have ideas on these issues you want me to share with the rest of the General Assembly, please don’t hesitate to contact me at 963-0337 or in Columbia at (803) 734-3045.