Sen. Bramble crafting 'Utah Compact Bill' on immigration

Sen. Bramble crafting 'Utah Compact Bill' on immigration

Billy Hesterman - Daily Herald Daily Herald
Posted: Thursday, February 24, 2011 12:15 am

SALT LAKE CITY -- Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, unveiled his comprehensive immigration bill to the Utah Senate majority caucus Wednesday afternoon.

The bill, Senate Bill 288, which is still protected and not released to the public, is consistent with the Utah Compact and principles that Gov. Gary Herbert said Utah should follow when crafting immigration legislation. Although the official title of the bill is Utah Immigration and Enforcement Amendments, Bramble calls his bill the "Utah Compact Bill."

"The Utah Compact Bill includes provisions for sanctions against employers for individuals that hire employes that wouldn't have authorization under E-Verify or under a Utah guest worker program. There are provisions for enforcement. There are provisions for penalizing individuals who have violated immigration law to be in the state of Utah. It's a bill that deals in a more comprehensive fashion with immigration in Utah," Bramble said.

The bill includes language dealing with law enforcement, a guest worker program, employer sanctions, in-state tuition status of immigrants and other elements dealing with immigration in Utah. Bramble said he has been working on the bill for the last month.

"There have been a group of legislators and stake holders that have been meeting for the last month or more," Bramble said.

The bill includes ideas similar to an enforcement measure sponsored by Rep. Stephen Sandstrom, R-Orem, but Bramble said he sees some problems with Sandstrom's bill and hopes to fix those with this new legislation. Sandstrom's bill has already passed the House and is awaiting a committee hearing in the Senate.

"One of those deals with the issue of business licenses. I received a letter today from the Department of Commerce indicating it would be very difficult, the way the Sandstrom bill is currently drafted, to administer the particular enforcement provision," Bramble said.

Bramble went on to say that the guest worker provision in his bill is more in line with the guest worker program proposed by Rep. Bill Wright, R-Holden, which passed the House on Wednesday. But does include some concepts that were contained within legislation sponsored by Sen. Luz Robles, D-Salt Lake City, particularly the provision allowing families of a guest worker to be included if the person receives guest worker status.

Robles said, after her bill, Senate Bill 60, passed favorably out of committee Wednesday, that she is happy to see a comprehensive bill being drafted.

"I am personally excited the Senate is bringing a comprehensive approach," Robles said. "I applaud that."

Portions of the bill would require a wavier from the federal government to be enacted, but the bill contains a trigger date upon which the state will begin the program without federal approval.

Bramble also expressed the sentiment that many lawmakers have proclaimed this year: "The federal government has failed." Bramble and other lawmakers agree the illegal immigration situation should be solved by the federal government, but since Washington, D.C., has chosen not to attack the issue, state lawmakers feel it is their job to find solutions.

"We didn't ask to be thrown into this contest. But it exists and now we have to deal with it, and that's what we are trying to establish, the appropriate policy," Bramble said.

Senate Majority Leader Scott Jenkins, R-Plain City, said the Senate caucus has not yet taken an official position on Bramble's immigration bill and that the Republican senators are "still knee deep in it." Jenkins did call the proposed legislation a "kinder and gentler" approach to immigration than some of the other bills that have been proposed.

For more information on the Utah Compact, go to http://utahcompact.com/

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Omnibus immigration bill offered on the Hill

By David Montero

The Salt Lake Tribune
First published Feb 23 2011 09:26PM
Updated Feb 24, 2011 04:50PM

A comprehensive immigration reform proposal that plucks key provisions from several other immigration bills — including Rep. Stephen Sandstrom’s enforcement-only measure — was floated Wednesday. If key senators get their way, the initiative will become the Legislature’s multifaceted solution to the illegal immigration problem and could push aside other measures attempting to address it in piecemeal fashion.

Sen. Curtis Bramble’s SB288 incorporates elements of Sandstrom’s bill, HB70; Rep. Chris Herrod’s HB253 that would sanction businesses that hire undocumented workers; and Rep. Carl Wimmer’s bill, HB191, that would repeal in-state tuition for undocumented students. The Bramble measure, however, wouldn’t do away with the in-state tuition but would allow it for families of permitted guest workers.

Bramble’s measure, touted at a news conference in Senate President Michael Waddoups’ office that featured Bramble and Senate Majority Leader Scott Jenkins, also contains somewhat of a supremacy clause, in which it states that even if bills authored by Herrod and Sandstrom are signed into lawn, the Bramble bill would trump them. Waddoups did not attend the conference.

The bill leans heavily on Rep. Bill Wright’s guest worker bill as its framework. That measure, HB116, cleared the House on Wednesday.

Bramble said he wanted to incorporate elements of the Utah Compact — a document signed by almost 4,000 people and supported by the LDS Church that seeks a more compassionate solution to immigration — as well as Gov. Gary Herbert’s six guiding principles on the issue.

The Provo senator said it also was a way to avoid the stigma of Arizona’s approach to immigration reform.

“The reality is an Arizona solution may not be a Utah solution,â€