House Walks Out On Immigration Bill

Ritchie vows to fight for strong illegal immigration reform

Columbia, SC – The House today walked out on illegal immigration reform. The Senate calls on the House to live up to its agreement. Less than 24 hours after agreeing to ask their members for a vote on private employer verification, the House failed to follow through on their agreement. After more than a week of political rhetoric, the House has failed again to take a decisive vote on legislation addressing private employer verification requirements.

“The people of South Carolina deserve better than what the House is doing,” says Senator Jim Ritchie (R-Spartanburg), Chairman of the Joint Legislative Conference Committee on illegal immigration reform. “The House has tried to kill this bill twice this year. They are hiding behind some strange interpretation of the rules to avoid delivering strong illegal immigration reform to the people of South Carolina”

The Senate has consistently led the effort on including private employer verification, while the House has offered little more than rhetoric and political maneuvering. The House had at least seven opportunities to vote on private employer verification and they have again failed to do anything to strengthen immigration reform.

Since 2006, the Senate has been working to deliver the strongest illegal immigration reform bill possible and remove the $186 million financial burden that illegal immigration places on the citizens of South Carolina.

After failing to secure the vote they had committed to yesterday, House conference committee members walked out on a conference committee meeting this afternoon.

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