KCPW
Business Leaders Speak Out Against Immigration Bills
Feb 13, 2008 by Elizabeth Ziegler

(KCPW News) Utah's business leaders are so concerned about a handful of illegal immigration bills moving through the Legislature they've formed a coalition to study the issue. Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Lane Beattie says the Legislature should listen more closely to business leaders' concerns.

"We think the business community has long been involved in this issue," Beattie says. "But it's not being heard."

Beattie says the coalition of at least 18 businesses, advocacy groups and non-profits wants lawmakers to stop and think before enacting laws that could hamper the state's economic growth. Beattie says lawmakers feel pressured to pass immigration reform in the absence of a comprehensive federal plan. But, Beattie says, this could have could have dire consequences.

"They're hearing from their constituents - in record numbers - about the desire to have something move forward," Beattie says. "We just want to make sure that that something is significant, is real, is sensitive, is something that is meaningful to the economy as well as human beings in this state."

The Coalition has come out against several of the immigration bills moving through the Capitol. But it is endorsing one - Senator Scott Jenkins' SB 97. The bill creates an Immigration Task Force comprised of 11 lawmakers from the House and Senate to study the issue thoroughly and recommend legislation

http://www.kcpw.org/article/5334