2 bills seek to delay controversial immigration rules

By Arthur Raymond

Deseret News
Published: Friday, Jan. 30, 2009 12:18 a.m. MST
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As modifications to last year's sweeping reform of Utah's immigration laws begin their march through the Legislature, two newly drafted bills aim to delay implementation of the new rules.

The new bills, both of which propose delaying the effective date of SB81 from its scheduled start on July 1, 2009, to July 1, 2010, are coming from opposite sides of the aisle and separate bodies of the Legislature.

Senate Minority Leader Patricia Jones, D-Holladay, said she's not convinced SB81 provides the right solution to solving Utah's immigration issues, and she worries that its provisions may actually have a negative impact on the state's current financial woes.

"In a year in which a great deal of the state budget is looking at cuts, how we're approaching immigration ... and how that approach may affect employers in the state doesn't make sense," Jones said. "We need to come together and work out a way to make good decisions."

Jones' bill, SB113, was introduced Monday and awaits committee assignment.

In the House, Rep. Stephen Clark, R-Provo, made good on a promise he levied during last summer's series of interim committee meetings tasked with working out the kinks of SB81.
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In those meetings, Clark asked many of those who testified on both sides of the issue what economic impact undocumented residents have on the state. No facts were forthcoming from those inquiries, so Clark is proposing a study of the issue in HB107, with an attached $150,000 price tag, in addition to a request for a one-year delay. Clark said a thoughtful pause was the appropriate next step to take.

"There shouldn't be any appetite to rush on this," Clark said. "Let's get all the information we need to make good choices ... and amend this in a way where we're not disrupting employers and actually address the cost of illegal immigrants, if there really is a cost."

Two national reports on the economic impact of immigrants concluded that, rather than representing a cost, the net economic effect is positive.

A 1997 report by the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences concluded that immigrants generate public revenue in excess of their costs to the public in their lifetimes — about $80,000 more in taxes than they receive in local, state and federal benefits.

Another evaluation, made in 2007 by the Council of Economic Advisers in a report to the Executive Office of the President, said "the long-run impact of immigration on public budgets is likely to be positive."

In the meantime, bills seeking to modify the tenets of SB81 have made their first steps toward the law books — or the tombs.

Two bills sponsored by members of last summer's Interim Immigration Committee are currently in the pipe. HB64, sponsored by House Majority Whip Brad Dee, R-Washington Terrace, would create a multi-agency immigration task force that would, according to language in the bill, "combat violent and other major crimes associated with illegal immigration and human traffickiing.

SB39, sponsored by Senate Majority Whip Scott Jenkins, R-Plain City, sits circled on the Senate second-reading calendar. It would clarify language in SB81 that outlines which businesses that contract with the state would be required to utilize the federal E-Verify system to ensure that their employees meet citizenship requirements.

Jenkins told reporters after Thursday's Senate floor session that the intent of SB81, and its modifications, is not anti-immigrant.

"It was never our intention to be hard on immigrants," he said. "It was our intention to be hard on illegal immigrants."

Barbara Szweda, an immigration attorney and public policy advocate for the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah, said the intent of SB81 and its attached modification bills not only supersedes the state's jurisdiction, but that it's also a poor use of taxpayer dollars in dire economic times.

"This is clearly a federal issue," Szweda said. "I think it's important for us to hold off. .... The Obama administration is clearly committed to moving forward with immigration reform. I think it's spending a lot of money up front to have to turn around and do something different in three or four months."

Szweda noted that the cost of SB81, $1.7 million, in addition to the $1 million required to enact Dee's task force bill, may very well escalate in the event that they are implemented — via the cost of litigation that's sure to follow.

"There are going to be lawsuits," she said. "That's a costly proposition."

Contributing: Lisa Riley Roche

E-mail: araymond@desnews.com
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