|
Illegal immigration is probably the number one issue in the minds of the majority of South Carolinians today. This is an issue that affects every aspect of our society: our jobs, our schools, our health care, our way of life, and our law enforcement system. It is draining our state of hundreds of millions of dollars at a time when our state is facing a revenue shortfall. It is an issue that will not go away by itself. Since the feds have ignored their duty to enforce these laws, states have taken it upon themselves to tackle this issue. South Carolinians have been demanding action on illegal immigration from our state legislators for several years. Yet, we continue to find our legislators embattled in petty politics and procedural maneuvering. Meanwhile, another week has been lost and South Carolina still has no immigration law.
It is a sad day when the SC State Senate spends most of their day attacking our state house and the office of the governor. This is what happened on Thursday, May 1 – the National Prayer Day in America. And what happened in the SC Senate makes it imperative for all of us to pray for the future of our state, our children and our grandchildren. The people and the governor had caught the senators with “their hands in the cookie jar” and they were trying to divert the people’s attention away from their procedural maneuvering that resulted in making a promising bill on illegal immigration worthless. A small recap of the most recent developments is in order.
During the week of April 21, the senate members on the S392 conference committee report asked the house conferees to take the final report to the house floor for a vote. The report deleted the I-9 option and kept E-Verify for all private employers, which is what the people and governor’s office wanted. The senate conferees’ plan was that a strong house vote in favor of the report would sway senators into doing the same. The house obliged.
South Carolinians and the governor’s office were all optimistic that finally we were going to get a strong bill that would result in the self-deportation of illegal aliens in our state. Unfortunately, what happened next was long on procedural finger-pointing, but short on action.
South Carolinians and the governor’s office demanded action. They immediately took to the phone and emails. The governor’s office issued a statement that included the phrase, “where there is a will there is a way.”
On Tuesday, April 29, the senate announced that they would meet to discuss immigration. Senator Jim Ritchie managed to shut down the senate calendar of bills and moved House Bill H3032 up for debate. Senators Ritchie, Campsen, and McConnell offered an amendment to the bill that would replace its language with the Conference Committee language. The passage of this amendment would require a simple majority of 24 senators. However there was the possibility of a senator filibustering. To stop a filibuster the lesser of 26 senators or 3/5 of those present is required. The Senate consists of 28 Republicans and 18 Democrats. “We the people” were optimistic once again just to be let down one more time.
Senator Ritchie called for the vote without having the necessary 26 votes needed for cloture. Democrat Senator John Land seized the opportunity and began to filibuster. Rather than making them filibuster all night long, Senator McConnell pulled one of his fast parliamentary maneuvers. He called for a voice vote on an amendment that was illegal-alien friendly and passed unanimously. It called for the creation of our own ineffective form I-9, called SC Verify.
South Carolinians had been snowed once again by the elitist manipulation and maneuvering of the state senate. We are outraged! The governor’s office issued a press release voicing the disappointment and calling for South Carolinians to go to the statehouse on Tuesday and demand action from the legislators “face-to-face.”
The senate’s proposed SC-Verify is just the federal inept, ineffective I-9 Form in disguise. Additionally, the federal government prohibits the states to fine or imprison employers of illegal aliens. Only their licenses can be removed. The bill as it now stands is a lawsuit-in-waiting. The lobbyists know this, the Democrats know this, and our Republican-controlled senate allowed this. Taxpayers don’t want to continue to finance the senate’s inadequacies.
For those of you who want to believe the propaganda being issued by McConnell and Company, ask yourselves this question: If this bill is so much stronger than the previous one, how was the senate able to pass it unanimously, when they could not even get 26 votes for the former one? The answer lies in the truth: Amendment 7 created the loophole that the lobbyists and those beholden to them wanted!
--------------------------------------------
Roan Garcia-Quintana is Executive Director of Americans Have Had Enough Coalition. He can be reached at roangq@bell
south.net.
|
