Legislative panel told to 'hang tough'
Speakers ask committee to back law against illegal immigration
By Christopher Smart
The Salt Lake TribuneArticle Last Updated: 08/28/2008 12:37:42 AM MDT

KIMBALL JUNCTION - Crime would go down. Taxes would go down. Unemployment would go down. And everyone would speak English.
That would be the result if federal officials enforced immigration laws, according to various speakers Wednesday evening before the Utah legislative Immigration Interim Committee.
But since that is not going to happen, Utah must enact SB81 - passed earlier this year but not slated to take effect until July 1, 2009 - and make sure police and employers throughout the state enforce it.
The committee's third of eight such hearings was held at Ecker Hill Middle School, a stone's throw from Kimball Junction, where Summit County's booming resort economy is underpinned by immigrant labor.
Speakers, like retired U.S. Border Patrol officer Eugene Davis, stressed they weren't against legal immigration, but that undocumented workers were crippling the country economy and culture.
And Davis added, that porous borders also are an invitation to terrorists.
"I have grave concern that we continue to swim in a sea of illegal immigration," he told the committee. "If we cannot control our borders, we cannot control our destiny."
The Utah law that outlines, among other things, that local law enforcement be included in immigration policing and that employers be held responsible for hiring undocumented workers, was based on Oklahoma legislation.
"I want you guys to hang tough," said visiting Oklahoma Rep. Randy Terrill. "Don't be harassed or bullied or intimidated by the naysayers. There is going to be an outcry from the business community."
Oklahoma was sued by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, as well as the Oklahoma Chamber of Commerce. Portions of the law were struck down. But Terrill said lawmakers would prevail on appeal.
The new law will save Oklahoma taxpayers $200 million a year in costs incurred in health care, education, welfare and corrections by undocumented aliens, Terrill said.
When asked by committee member Utah Rep. Neil A. Hansen what should happen to American-born children whose undocumented parents are deported, Terrill said that lawbreakers of any kind are separated from their families when they go to prison.
That comment left Park City outreach worker Shelley Weiss livid.
"I find that morally reprehensible," she said in an interview outside the hearing room. "The U.S. Chamber of Commerce will sue Utah, just like they did Oklahoma."
Park City businessman Brian Harlig said the testimony Wednesday evening did not reflect opinions in Summit County, where unemployment is practically nonexistent.
"Nobody disagrees that immigration needs to be addressed," he said in an interview. "But they want to handcuff them and send them back. It's B.S."
But speaker after speaker told the committee that undocumented workers keep wages down.
"It's a contemptible statement to say they take jobs Americans just won't do," said Kent Lundgren, president of the National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers.
Without a large pool of cheap labor, employers would raise wages and unemployment would go down, Lundgren explained.
Others, including Alex Segura of the Utah Minuteman Project, testified that such things as the state's driver privilege card for immigrants is a great aid to undocumented workers and helps them obtain false documents and perpetrates identity theft.
Utah Rep. Christopher Henrod, who is not on the panel but was speaking as a citizen who is married to a legal immigrant, said the Beehive State has a reputation of being friendly to undocumented workers.
"Do we want to be known as the state that opens its arms to illegal aliens?"
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_10320330