South Carolina is climbing into the contentious national debate over illegal immigrants with legislation introduced Wednesday by state Rep. Catherine Ceips requiring public agencies and contractors to verify that their employees are eligible to work in the country.

The proposal is similar to a new Georgia law approved by Gov. Sonny Perdue last week that requires public agencies and contractors to check employees' immigration status using the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services' Web-based authorization program.

The South Carolina bill would require employers of at least 500 workers to use the program by July 2007. Those with at least 100 employees would have to use the system by July 2008, and all others would have to comply by July 2009.

Hoping to beat a Monday deadline that requires House bills to receive a two-thirds vote to move to the Senate instead of a majority vote, Ceips' bill was placed on the calendar to receive key approval before the House adjourns this week.

Largely a volunteer pilot program, there's no enforcement component in the federal verification system to guarantee employers heed the information, said Chris Bentley, an immigration service spokesman.

"It's to see if this is a usable means of verifying employment status," he said.

But Ceips, a Beaufort Republican, said the point isn't to punish employees or employers, but to ensure that contractors for public projects are using the system to prohibit illegal immigrants.

"Those are some great jobs and these are tax dollars," she said Wednesday. "If they're going to take tax dollars, we're going to make sure they are following the law."

Employers are limited to checking information on new hires and not allowed to use the program to determine the status of existing employees, Bentley said.

Congress will have to determine the fate of the verification program, set to expire in two years. Hotly debated immigration legislation could make the program permanent. A pending Senate bill in Congress combines stronger border enforcement with a legalization process for current illegal immigrants and future immigrant workers.

The Governor's Office has not seen the language of Ceips' bill, said spokesman Joel Sawyer.

"We're certainly supportive of efforts to deal with the problem of illegal immigration on the state level," he said.

Luis Bell, executive director of the Latin American Council of South Carolina, said he had no comment on the state proposal.

The South Carolina bill puts off some requirements in the Georgia law to better position it for approval, Ceips said. But the General Assembly likely will take a look at those concerns next year, including increased immigration training for law enforcement, reporting felony and drunken-driving convictions to federal immigration officials and requiring verification of legal status for public health benefits.

Another piece of Georgia's new immigration law creates penalties for human trafficking in the state. A bill introduced by Ceips last year now awaiting Gov. Mark Sanford's signature establishes similar penalties in South Carolina.