Tea Party Says AG Soft on ‘Illegals'

By Adam Lynch Tuesday, August 3, 2010 1:55 p.m. CDT

Adam Lynch

Radio talk-show host Kim Wade and other conservative speakers criticized the federal government and state legislators for lobbying for votes among Hispanics.

At an immigration forum in Madison last night, state Rep. Becky Currie, R-Brookhaven, attacked Attorney General Jim Hood for what she considers his unwillingness to enforce new state legislation that makes it illegal to employ undocumented residents.

"If E-verify (laws) had been implemented correctly, it would have worked, but we put it in the hands of the attorney general, and the attorney general has not done a very good job. As of this day, I don't know of one compliance (issue) or one thing publicly he's done. Maybe he's done something privately, but so far, I know of nothing," Currie said.

The Mississippi Employment Protection Act, Senate Bill 2988, went into effect July 1, 2008. The law requires employers to authenticate the resident status of all employees through the federal database known as E-Verify. The law pertains to all Mississippi agencies and political subdivisions. It applied to all public contractors and private employers with 250 or more employees by July 2008, private employers with 100 or more employees by July 2009, private employers with 30 or more employees by 2010, and all will apply to all employers by July 2011.

The penalties for non-compliance include the cancellation of state contracts and ineligibility for future contracts for up to three years, and the possibility of the revocation of the employer's business license for up to one year.

The law, however, is much harsher on undocumented workers. An undocumented worker can receive a felony for accepting or performing employment for compensation. Upon conviction, a violator is subject to serve to five years in prison, a fine of up to $10,000, or both.

The law also presses a judge to consider all violators at risk of fleeing when determining bail.

Hood did not immediately return calls regarding Currie's accusation, but the law lists Hood's office as only one of five agencies in charge of enforcement, along with the Department of Employment Security, the Mississippi Tax Commission, the secretary of state and the Department of Human Services. All, including Hood's office, have the authority to seek penalties under the law and to bring charges for noncompliance against any employer or employee.

Republican Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann's office, which monitors state businesses, did not immediately return calls regarding how many actions his office had brought related to SB 2988 since the law's 2008 inception. Currie did not criticize Hosemann or any of the state agencies whose directors serve under Republican Gov. Haley Barbour.

The forum's speakers, including Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant, conservative radio talk-show host and Mississippi Tea Party supporter Kim Wade, and Second Congressional District candidate Bill Marcy, a Republican, took turns complaining that the federal government, under Democratic leadership--like Democrat Hood--was not doing enough to enforce immigration laws, and restrict illegal immigration.
Wade said he believed the national and state political indifference toward immigration restriction stemmed from the mechanics of the democratic process.

"If it's all about compassion, why don't you step up ... and say 'we just want to work. We don't want to vote for anybody.' Do it like that. Because if the people who come into this country illegally say that, they'd find that they don't have as many supporters as they thought they had, because the supporters they have only want to get them to vote for them," Wade said.

Wade told the Jackson Free Press Monday that local and national Democrats ignored immigration restriction in an effort to lobby votes from the growing Hispanic community. He described political arguments against immigration restriction as "political gamesmanship," wherein immigrant advocates "can get their people in power who will vote for Democrats until perpetuity."

Attorney and tea party member Russ Latino told the crowd of about 250 at the public forum that he believed both Republicans and Democrats on the federal level had ignored "their constitutional duty to defend the border."

"This is a deliberate act," said Latino, a self-professed descendent of Italian immigrants. "What they see is a potential voting bloc of 13 million people, and they want that voting bloc, and instead of being driven by principle and the rule of law, they are driven by electoral greed."

Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance Executive Director Bill Chandler dismissed Wade's statement that newly nationalized Hispanics tended to vote Democrat.

"There's no telling how Latinos vote," Chandler said. "There's a wide variety of personalities in the community."

Chandler pointed out that many Hispanics immigrating to the country tend to be religious and socially conservative. "What they're using is a scare tactic to frighten white people into believing they're going to lose their country," he said.

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