Don't miss last real chance to pass immigration reform

The Legislature's most emotionally charged issue became even more volatile this past week as Gov. Mark Sanford and Senate President Pro Tempore Glenn McConnell clashed sharply over the Senate's latest effort to salvage the immigration reform bill. With the clock ticking down toward the end of the session, this revamped bill on its way back to the House is far better than no new law at all.

Unfortunately, abject failure on immigration reform is very much in the offing if the House and Senate can't come to terms on the issue within the next few weeks. Realists recognize that an immigration reform bill still in the House-Senate conference committee is irrevocably stalled there on a complicated technicality. That's why reformers in the Senate revived and amended a House immigration bill, which then became the object of a filibuster by Senate Minority Leader John Land.

Two leading Senate reformers — Sen. McConnell and Sen. Chip Campsen — and the governor are in agreement that the fatal flaw in the bill that went to the conference committee was the inclusion of an employee verification option known as the federal I-9. That paper form has proven virtually worthless, primarily because employers are prohibited from scrutinizing the underlying documentation. Their goal has been to remove the I-9 option, which has continued to be pushed by lobbyists for farm and business interests.

As a compromise last week, Sen. McConnell revived his proposal to create a South Carolina version of the federal paper verification system — titled S.C. Verify — which would allow employer scrutiny of documentation and include much tougher fines. Thus the new immigration bill would have three verification options — the S.C. driver's license, which is considered the most reliable; the new federal computerized E-Verify that already has proven successful in a number of states; and the new paper version titled S.C. Verify.

The fact that Senate opponents of reform were willing to buy the new S.C. Verify option has raised suspicions that it too is fatally flawed. Sen. Campsen, however, describes the S.C. Verify as a "beefed up" version of what Sen. McConnell proposed earlier but couldn't get past Senate opponents.

But Gov. Sanford contends that portions of the S.C. Verify are unenforceable because they pre-empt portions of the federal paper verification system — the I-9. What if the governor is right? Sen. Campsen doesn't see that as a major problem. He points out that the bill has a severability clause. He believes that a challenge could eliminate the entire S.C. Verify, leaving only the S.C. driver's license and the federal E-Verify as options, which is what most reformers have wanted all along.

But the governor's chief of staff, Scott English, disagrees. He notes that the S.C. Verify language requires that the paper form comply with federal immigration and employment rules — which he says means it must be the same form as the controversial I-9.

If there is to be an S.C. version of the I-9, Mr. English contends that the enforcement should be revised. Rather than putting it under the S.C. Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulations, which he says has no staff or funds for the task, it would better placed under the attorney general's office.

While there may be a need for some revision, at least the immigration bill "still is in play," as Sen. Campsen notes.

It may well be midweek before the House weighs in on the revamped bill, which is stronger in terms of private employer verification than the bill that body sent to the Senate. Meanwhile, the governor's office has made suggestions to the House leadership about possible changes.

What's needed at this point is for reformers on both sides of the aisle and in the governor's office to put aside hurt feelings and strong words and work toward passage of a law that will make this state as off limits as possible to illegal immigrants. Otherwise this session will end with one more regrettable victory for, in Sen. McConnell's words, "those special interests in the lobby."