COLUMBIA - Immigration reform will be a top issue for the Legislature next year, according to a Senate panel leader looking at changing laws targeting illegal immigrants.

It's "one of the highest priorities of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the General Assembly," Sen. Jim Ritchie, R-Spartanburg, said during a panel meeting.

The panel, considering laws like those recently passed in Georgia, heard testimony from people who want something done now and those who say this is an area for the federal government.

The panel is considering legislation that would:

- Require all public agencies, their contractors and subcontractors to verify an employee's citizenship by participating in a federal program that compares employee forms to certain databases, such as one maintained by Social Security

- Screen jails for illegal immigrants

- Allow state prosecutors to go after the crimes of sexual or labor servitude and regulate immigration service companies.

The panel also is interested in federal law allowing local law enforcement agencies to sign an agreement with Homeland Security, which houses immigration enforcement efforts, and become trained in identifying and detaining illegal immigrants.

"It's a force multiplier for us," said Brock Nicholson, a deputy director for the agency's regional office in Atlanta. "They help us do our job."

Illegal immigrants are taking American jobs, including summer work for students, Roan Garcia-Quintana, the executive director of the group Americans Have Had Enough, told the panel. Business owners should face sanctions, such as the loss of a business license or jail time, he said.

"It's not about jobs Americans will not take," he said. "It's about jobs Americans will not take for $2 to $3 per hour."

Mark Thies, a co-director of South Carolinians for Immigration Moderation, said his group wants to find ways to discourage illegal immigrants.

"If we do something now, we can reward companies that do the right thing," Mr. Thies said.

Jack Martin, a representative of the national group Federation for American Immigration Reform that helped Georgia craft its new law, said South Carolina is spending $185 million yearly for education, hospital emergency care and incarceration of illegal immigrants. He estimates there are 76,000 illegal immigrants and that education costs alone are $144 million.