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COMMITTEE AMENDMENT ADOPTED
January 29, 2008
S. 856
Introduced by Senators McConnell, Grooms, Ritchie, Bryant, Campsen, O'Dell, Alexander, Elliott, McGill, Knotts and Ceips
S. Printed 1/29/08--S. [SEC 1/30/08 11:19 AM]
Read the first time January 8, 2008.
REQUESTING THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES TO CALL A CONVENTION FOR THE SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE PURPOSE OF PROPOSING AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES TO PROVIDE THAT NO PROVISION OF THE CONSTITUTION SHALL RESTRICT OR LIMIT A STATE FROM ENFORCING FEDERAL LAW WITH REGARD TO IMMIGRATION VIOLATIONS, TO PROVIDE THAT A STATE MAY DECIDE WHAT GOVERNMENT SERVICES FUNDED IN WHOLE OR IN PART BY THE STATE MAY BE PROVIDED TO OR DENIED TO UNDOCUMENTED ALIENS, TO PROVIDE THAT THE STATES SHALL HAVE ANY POWER TO REGULATE IMMIGRATION THAT HAS NOT BEEN SPECIFICALLY PREEMPTED BY CONGRESS, TO PROVIDE THAT EACH STATE HAS THE POWER TO PRESCRIBE STATE CIVIL AND CRIMINAL PENALTIES FOR ILLEGALLY ENTERING THE UNITED STATES, AND TO PROVIDE THAT A STATE HAS THE POWER TO APPREHEND AND EXPEL PERSONS FROM ITS BORDERS WHO ARE IN VIOLATION OF FEDERAL IMMIGRATION LAW, AND THAT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT MUST PROVIDE TIMELY ASSISTANCE IN EXPELLING UNDOCUMENTED ALIENS UPON A REQUEST BY A STATE.
Amend Title To Conform
Whereas, the problem of illegal immigration in the United States has had a dramatic effect on the safety and security of each state in the United States; and
Whereas, the United States Congress has taken no action to deal with this problem or to alleviate the financial hardships that provision of benefits to undocumented aliens places on states' infrastructures and state taxpayers or upon the commerce of the states, including diminished wages of United States citizens; and
Whereas, states are precluded from addressing this crisis because of the constitutional mandates which provide that immigration is within the sole province of the federal government. Now, therefore,
Be it resolved by the Senate of the State of South Carolina, the House of Representatives concurring:
That effective July 1, 2008, pursuant to Article V of the United States Constitution, the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina makes application to the Congress of the United States to call a convention for the sole and exclusive purpose of proposing the following articles as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, for submission to the states for ratification:
1. No provision of this Constitution, or any amendment thereto, shall restrict or limit any state from enforcing federal law with regard to immigration violations. In the absence of proof of legal citizenship status, a state may decide what governmental services funded in whole or in part by the state may be provided to or denied from any undocumented alien located within the state's respective jurisdiction.
2. In implementing the provisions of this article, each state shall have the authority to prescribe civil and criminal penalties for violations occurring within its jurisdiction that are in addition to but not in contravention of any federal immigration laws relating to illegally entering the United States, unless specifically preempted by federal law.
3. A state shall also have the power to apprehend and expel persons who are within the state's jurisdiction in violation of federal immigration law. The federal government must provide timely assistance to the state in expelling undocumented aliens upon request by a state.
4. Only a person born to a citizen of the United States, or naturalized in the United States, or born to a parent who is legally present in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, is a citizen of the United States and of the state wherein he resides.
Be it further resolved, that this article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several states within seven years from the date of its submission.
Be it further resolved, that if the Congress shall have proposed an amendment to the Constitution identical with that contained in this memorial prior to January 1, 2010, this application for a convention shall be null and void, rescinded, and no longer be of any force or effect.
Be it further resolved, that this application and request be deemed void ab initio, rescinded, and no longer of any force or effect in the event that any one or more of the applications from other states constituting a sufficient number of applications for a constitutional convention to convene do not limit the purpose for which the convention is called to the same specific and exclusive purposes enumerated herein.
Be it further resolved, that copies of this memorial must be immediately transmitted by the Clerks of the House of Representatives and the Senate to the Secretary of the Senate of the United States, the Clerk of the House of Representatives of the United States, to each member of the Congress from this State, and to the President Pro Tempore and the Speaker of the House in each state.
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