Governor Sanford Issues Statement on Senate's Immigration Delay

Columbia, S.C. - May 13, 2008 - Governor Mark Sanford today issued the following statement on the state Senate's decision to delay acting on the House's immigration plan, and instead voted to adjourn in a 23-20 vote:

"I think what we saw today is a little bit better accounting of who in the Senate is really for a stronger immigration bill and who isn't," Gov. Sanford said. "The Senate had a real chance to take a strong stand today on the idea of enforceable penalties and a meaningful e-verify requirement, and we agree with Senators Campsen, Ritchie, Martin and others that they should have done so. That being said, we recognize that Senator McConnell and others believe that delaying for a day is the best way to work out technical issues on this bill - and in fairness to them, we're willing to reserve final judgment on that front for the next 24 hours. The good news in all of this, though, is that tomorrow the people of South Carolina will finally be able to see how serious their Senators are about immigration reform."