Controversial immigration reform in South Carolina

On Monday, June 27, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley signed into effect a law that would allow law enforcement agents to check the immigration status of anyone who is suspected of being in the country illegally. The law will also require businesses to check the immigration status of new employees through the E-Verify database.

Opposition to this new law is being strongly vocalized through various organizations, such as the Southern Poverty Law Center and the National Immigration Law Center.

Victoria Middleton, director of the South Carolina American Civil Liberties Union chapter, stated that the law “undermines the efforts made to overcome our state’s shameful history of discrimination (by) inviting racial profiling of anyone who looks or sounds ‘foreign.’

When questioned about her reasoning for supporting the new law, Governor Haley issued the following statement:

“What I’m concerned about is the money we’re losing because of illegal immigration in this state. The money that’s lost in education and medical services and workers and employment and all of those things is well beyond millions of dollars, so the fact that we’re putting money into enforce that we have legal immigration in this state and not illegal immigration is exactly what we should be doing.”

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For information regarding similar laws, see below.