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web posted October 9, 2007 COLUMBIA – Governor Mark Sanford urged leaders Monday in the General Assembly to make state-level immigration reforms a top priority in the upcoming legislative session before focusing on trying to convene a state-initiated nationwide Constitutional Convention - something that has never occurred in the country's history - to deal with the immigration issue that Congress has thus far been unable to achieve a simple majority on. Senate leaders have recently expressed support for calling a Constitutional Convention to deal with the issue of illegal immigration, one that Congress has so far failed to act on. Gov. Sanford said that while the idea is worth exploring, the legislature's first focus should be finalizing state-based immigration reform, versions of which have already passed the House and Senate. "While I'd certainly commend Senator McConnell for, rightly, looking at ways to force Congress to act on this issue, we believe that the first step should be passing some version of the new state laws that are already being considered," Gov. Sanford said. "Amending the Constitution via state conventions has never been done before in our nation's history, and we think there are more immediate steps we could take here in South Carolina. In short, the issue the Senator raises is worth exploring as a long-term fix if Congress continues to fail to act, but in the short term there are concrete steps that we can take at the state level to impact illegal immigration. It needs to be remembered that Georgia has already passed legislation similar to what is being contemplated by our General Assembly, and if we don't follow suit we run the risk of creating an environment that fosters illegal activity while we're waiting on other reforms to take place. With similar bills already having been passed by the House and Senate, we believe the General Assembly should first focus on passing those proposals. Bills currently under consideration in the House and Senate would require all South Carolina employers doing business with the state to be able to verify the citizenship of their workers. The bill would also deny business expense deductions to employers of illegal workers, and would mandate withholdings on wages paid to illegal workers. In addition, the bills would create a state felony for harboring or transporting illegal aliens, would create additional penalties for ID fraud in connection with illegal immigration, would set up a state hotline for reporting suspected violations of immigration laws, and would direct SLED to execute a memorandum of understanding with the federal government to serve as an auxiliary immigration and customs enforcement agency. For all
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