The South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation has scheduled a training session on the state’s new immigration law at Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College Thursday, Jan. 8, 2009.

The training session will aim to help employers understand and know how to comply with the new state immigration law.

The OCtech training session will be held from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Auditorium in Building R.

The Orangburg session is one of many scheduled for the months of December and January at technical colleges throughout the state. The statewide training sessions will run through Jan. 15.

On June 4, Gov. Mark Sanford signed into law the “South Carolina Illegal Immigration Reform Act”.

In addition to complying with I-9 requirements, all employers are required to verify the legal status of employees.

One way to do so is through the Department of Homeland Security’s online database called E-verify; another is to determine that the employee has a South Carolina driver’s license or other government issued identity document.

The statute also sets penalties, including fines and loss of business licenses, for failing to get verification and for knowingly hiring an illegal immigrant.

LLR will investigate complaints and randomly audit companies.

However, according to the provisions of the law, the agency cannot accept and investigate complaints or conduct audits until July 1, 2009, at businesses employing 100 or more workers, and July 1, 2010, at businesses employing less than 100 workers.

A Web site, www.llr.state.sc.us/immigration, is available to assist employees, employers and others affected by the law.

Seating will be limited at each technical school, so LLR is asking employers to consider sending only one representative.

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