South Carolina Senate committee OKs bill to track refugees

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

South Carolina Senate committee OKs bill to track refugees

By Jeffrey Collins?|?AP January 27 at 3:28 PM

COLUMBIA, S.C. — A bill requiring state police to track refugees coming to South Carolina and to hold their sponsors liable for damages if they commit an act of terrorism is on its way to the floor of the state Senate.

A Senate committee approved the measure on Wednesday. A spokesman for an organization focused on protecting the civil rights of Muslims said South Carolina is the first state he knows of that has proposed such a registry.

The proposal has wide support among conservative Republicans, but its future could be bleak. Two Democrats voted against it Wednesday, with one of them blocking floor debate. A Republican who initially supported the bill said she could not support a provision requiring that refugees’ addresses be placed on an Internet registry.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/south-carolina-senate-committee-oks-bill-to-track-refugees/2016/01/27/7efa2936-c534-11e5-b933-31c93021392a_story.html

[KamaAina]

1. Ihre papiere, bitte.

[pampango]

2. "Democratic Sen. Kevin Johnson was there for all the hearings, and said he was saddened that people

didn’t realize nearly all refugees are fleeing terrorism and only want the chance for a new life and success in America. The Democrat from Manning, who is black, said he had a new appreciation of what his grandparents and great-grandparents went through in the segregated South.

“They were told the same thing,” Johnson said. “We don’t want you in our state. We don’t want you in our neighborhood. We don’t want you in our schools. All you want to do is kill, rape, steal, whatever.”

The bill requires any groups helping to settle refugees in South Carolina to be liable if any refugee commits an act of terrorism.

The proposal is another ugly attempt to paint all Muslims as supporting violence and disruption, said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “It raises all kinds of questions, legally and ethically, when you treat a religious minority like they were sex offenders,” Hooper said.

Another insightful example of repubican's peddling fear for partisan gain. Thanks for posting it, Eugene.