Immigration is a top issue for voters in rural S.C.

Rural farming counties in the South have seen some of the highest Latino immigration rates, and South Carolina is no exception. When the state holds its Republican presidential primary tomorrow, the issue of illegal immigration will be a key one for voters, reports of the Los Angeles Times.

Reporter Richard Fausset offers the perspective of voters in Saluda County (pop. 19,000), about hour west of the state capital of Columbia, which has "the largest ratio of Latinos in the state" and where textile-plant closures cost more than 1,400 jobs, according to the county's former planning and economic development director. Immigrants have brought cheap labor and retail spending, facts that complicate the issue here in Saluda County and elsewhere, Fausset writes. "The undocumented population has become fairly embedded, not just in Saluda, but in an awful lot of communities," Mike Deloache, a downtown real estate broker, told Fausset.

Others in the town want a hard line on the issue, and some have formed an anti-immigration group called Save Our Saluda. Marti Coleman Adams (in a Times photo by Brett Flashnick), a shop owner in Saluda and founder of the group, said illegal immigration is her main concern. “We can stay in Iraq and stay in Afghanistan,” she told Fausset. “But I’d say that if the problem of illegal immigration is not addressed, then we’re not going to have a country anymore.”(Read more)