Senator Jim Ritchie: “I personally oppose I-9. I know it is a failed system.”
Senator Jim Ritchie: “I personally oppose I-9. I know it is a failed system.”
SPARTANBURG, SC — Senator Jim Ritchie (R – Spartanburg) issued the following statement today regarding the Illegal Immigration Reform Act and his efforts to adopt strict enforcement requirements for private employers. In response to recent news reports that he is opposed to requiring private employers to use the e-verify system when hiring new employees, Senator Ritchie had the following to say.
“I personally oppose the I-9. I know it is a failed system. For years, employers have fulfilled the federal government’s requirements to complete an I-9 for new hires. In that time, South Carolina has seen its illegal immigrant population increase over 1,000 percent. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that unless we cut off the source of illegal aliens’ livelihood, we cannot fully begin to address the crisis we face today as a state and as a nation.
I have lead this fight for two years and I remain fully committed to comprehensive, effective reform. In that time, I have chaired the Senate’s illegal immigration committees, held public hearings across the state, and most importantly, I have listened to the citizens of South Carolina.
I understand the issues we face and I drafted a bill that has been passed by both the Senate and the House. It also has the endorsement of Governor Sanford.
When we first introduced this legislation, I fought to require E-verify in the public contractors and public employment provisions of the bill. I lead the opposition to efforts to include I-9 in the original bill.
In the year between the Senate passing our bill and the House acting on it, I responded to the calls of people across this state who demanded strict requirements for private employers. I was the first legislator to take a stand on this issue and the first to offer an amendment to the bill that required e-verify for private employers.
My amendment expanded the employee verification requirements for public employers and contractors to all private employers. It required employers to verify an employee’s status using E-verify or a South Carolina driver’s license. It absolutely did not include the option of using an I-9. And it didn’t stop there – it included penalties for employers who knowingly or intentionally hire an illegal alien.
Despite my best efforts, my amendment failed.
I an effort to move this bill forward, I worked with the Senate to ensure that we did include private employers at some level in the bill. I was successful in including language that penalizes private employers for knowingly or intentionally hiring an illegal immigrant. And we were able to include employee verification requirements, but only if we included the I-9 as a third verification option.
Much has been said about my efforts on this legislation and I want to make this very clear. I support and fought to include E-verify and South Carolina-issued identification as the only two verification options. I never have supported including the failed I-9 for verification purposes.
The inclusion of the I-9 is the Senate’s position. As a Senate-appointed negotiator on the bill’s Conference Committee, I have a responsibility to represent the Senate in negotiations with the House.
Unfortunately, the House has once again chosen political grandstanding over responsible, decisive action. Let me be clear – the House has never included private employers in illegal immigration reform legislation. They have never voted to enact employee verification requirements for private employers – not even in their own illegal immigration reform bill, the South Carolina Plan that was introduced in January, which has 58 co-sponsors, nearly half the body.
We must take a tough stand on illegal immigration reform and we must fight for a nation-leading reform package. I call on the public to contact their legislators, House and Senate members alike, to demand their support for real action.”
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