Date Published: January 28, 2007   

Legal challenge possible for county's immigrant hiring ordinance

The Associated Press

Opponents of a Dorchester County ordinance that would allow the county to revoke business licenses for people who hire illegal immigrants say they might wait and see how a court challenge to a similar policy in another county proceeds before taking action.

The Dorchester County ordinance, which passed on a 4-3 vote and becomes effective in July, allows authorities to audit the papers that employers are required to get verifying a worker's immigration status. But opponents say they want to see what happens in Beaufort County, where a similar ordinance passed last month, before taking action.

"Everywhere these ordinances have been passed, they have been subject to challenge, and the courts have routinely granted restraining orders," said Isaiah Delemar, acting regional counsel for the Atlanta office of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. "Unfortunately, who loses in this kind of case are the taxpayers."

In Valley Park, Mo., Circuit Judge Barbara Wallace recently declared a similar ordinance void because it "usurps the exclusive federal authority to regulate immigration," Delemar said.

Delemar wrote in a letter to the Dorchester County Council that the proposal "serves only to make a political statement and jeopardizes your economy and community. ... Only the federal government has the authority and ability to effectively resolve the complex (immigration) problem."

In Beaufort County, Delemar has been working with the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, which has written council members on the ordinance, set to take effect there next January.

"We believe the Act ... is unconstitutional on a number of bases and will ultimately be invalidated by the courts," general counsel Cesar Perales said in a Jan. 17 letter to the county.

Beaufort County administrator Gary Kubic said he's moving ahead with plans to hire auditors to enforce the ordinance.

"I have no choice but to proceed, because it's a passed piece of legislation," Kubic said. "I don't respond to threats of litigation."

The county's business-license ordinance already allows the county to inspect papers verifying immigration status, so the new ordinance simply strengthens existing policy, he said.

Opponents of the Dorchester County ordinance are trying to gather support.

"My phone has not stopped ringing," said Diana Salazar, of North Charleston, a Spanish-language translator of Mexican ancestry. "(Immigrants) just want to work. We should leave this to the federal government."

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Information from: The Post and Courier, http://www.theitem.com/apps/pbcs.dll/<a%20href=">http://www.charleston.net/