Judges seek rule on immigrant marriage

COLUMBIA --- Whether illegal immigrants get marriage licenses in South Carolina depends on which county they go to. That should end, some probate judges say.

The State newspaper of Columbia reported Saturday that at least one judge wants the attorney general to revisit a 2004 opinion that is being used to issue marriage licenses to illegal immigrants. Another probate judge thinks illegal immigrants do have a right to marry here.

The head of the probate judges association says there needs to be a rule that is enforced statewide.

"There should be some clarity, either from a court or an attorney general's opinion or the Legislature," said Florence County Probate Judge Kenneth Eaton, the president of the South Carolina Probate Judges Association.

Mr. Eaton said his organization has not taken a position on whether the licenses should be issued.

Lexington County Probate Judge Daniel Eckstrom wrote a letter Nov. 20 to Attorney General Henry McMaster.

Mr. Eckstrom asked Mr. McMaster to review the 2004 opinion on a law requiring people to provide a Social Security number or an alien identification number to get a marriage license.

In the 2004 opinion, Assistant Deputy Attorney General Robert Cook wrote that the law's intent was to find parents who didn't pay child support, not to deny people without the identification a marriage license.

"That opinion has given the impression to many that, for all practical purposes, illegal aliens essentially have an unqualified constitutional right to be issued a marriage license in South Carolina," Mr. Eckstrom said in the letter to Mr. McMaster.