Sen. Jim Ritchie (R-Spartanburg) has introduced an amendment to a pending immigration bill that would require all SC businesses by 2010 to participate in a federal employee verification system. All SC businesses. All of them. Every single one.
As of the 2006 census there were 4,321,249 people in SC. According to The State, the SC Legislature estimates that there are about 75,000 illegal immigrants in SC. For those of you not mathematically inclined my calculator tells me that that means about 1.7% of the people in SC are illegal immigrants.
The unemployment rate in SC jumped to 6.6% in January (source). Thus, assuming that the 6.6% rate applies across the board, we can assume that about 70,050 illegal immigrants are currently working in SC.
My point here is that the only real problem I see with illegal immigration in SC is that finding them will probably cost more than any benefit, whatever that might be, we would realize by removing them from our workforce. It is not as though we share a border with Mexico or Canada, and I don't see any immigrants paddling makeshift boats to Myrtle Beach anytime soon (not that anyone would notice in that eyesore). I simply don't see what is the big deal.
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The big deal is that the costs of having aliens inside the State are hidden, until you start turning over all the rocks they hide themselves under.
$10k per child / year + the additional strains resulting from ESL programs is a decent starting place, for those of you interested in actually understanding the economic impact of black market workers in an entitlement society.
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