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  1. #1
    Administrator Jean's Avatar
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    UT: Lawmakers look at revising controversial immigration bil

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    Lawmakers look at revising controversial immigration bill
    December 18, 2008



    Senate Bill 81 cracks down on illegal immigrants by affecting jobs and benefits. It's scheduled to go into effect in July, but now some lawmakers are having second thoughts.

    Hammering out the bill's details was a tough job to begin with. It was revised several times and became the subject of rallies and debates, before lawmakers agreed it would take effect July 2009.

    The committee agreed to study the bill's issues, but even now, there are a lot of unanswered questions. "Even after a year of hearings, we really still do not have good numbers that tell us the effect of illegal immigration on this state," said Rep. Stephen Clark.


    The heart of SB81 is that it requires employers verify an employees' U.S. citizenship. It also prohibits illegal immigrants from getting public financial or housing assistance and allows local police to engage or partner with federal officials on immigration enforcement.

    There are a lot of people who strongly feel an illegal immigrant crackdown is already overdue. "Utah has done quite a bit to encourage illegal aliens; giving them driver's privilege cards and state tuition for many, many years. So, we're finally coming to the balance point," said Robert Wren, with Utahns for Immigration Reform and Enforcement.


    But a number of factors may affect any immigration legislation going forward; economic realities, for one, and a renewed fight for new laws based on facts and figures and not emotion and assumption.

    "Words hurt, and the way they toss around the words 'them' and 'those people' and 'illegals,' they impact the whole Hispanic community, because we all become suspect," said Mike Martinez, who opposes SB81.

    Ultimately, Congress has to take action on immigration. The question is whether the new administration is enough to get that to happen.

    Even though immigration as an issue has take a back seat to the economy in the spotlight, there's little doubt the Utah Legislature will revisit the issue this upcoming session.

    http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=5119299
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  2. #2
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    Immigration issues on front burner at Utah Legislature

    Lawmakers put forth bills on crime, reform for 2009
    By Arthur Raymond
    Deseret News
    Published: December 19, 2008

    A pitch for a million-dollar project to target immigration-related crime, a plea for help from Utah's federal congressional representatives and a few tweaks to pending state immigration-reform legislation will be considered during the next legislative session.

    Those changes were proposed as the the final acts of the special-project legislative Immigration Interim Committee, which ceased to exist after Thursday's final meeting at the Capitol. The committee spent the past nine months traveling the state and hearing from Utahns on one of the hottest political topics.

    The committee was put together following the passage of SB81, the controversial immigration omnibus bill passed in 2008 amid fierce debate and contention. It is not scheduled to take effect until next July.

    The committee recommended clarification of some language in the bill, and new add-on committee bills that will attempt to address issues raised by the new laws. As the legislation continues to morph and expand, at least one committee member feels that there remain just too many questions, and not enough answers. Sen. Ross Romero, D-Salt Lake, wants to put on the brakes.

    "I think we have several areas that still need review," Romero said. "I would be more comfortable with a delay (in SB81's implementation)."

    Romero cited ongoing uncertainty about the federal immigration status verification system, E-Verify, which he said the federal government itself has yet to mandate. He also expressed concern about the ability of county law enforcement to take on new immigration-related responsibilities without additional funding and whether it was germane to push another bill that would create a multi-agency strike force, on top of enforcement provisions contained in SB81, that will cost taxpayers roughly a million dollars a pop in a year where funding even basic state programs is shaping up to be an enormous challenge.

    Rep. Brad Dee, R-Washington Terrace, had a slightly more optimistic take on financing the new strike force, which comes with an attached fiscal note of $1 million.

    "I've made it a goal of mine to find this money," Dee said. "I think that we can reallocate some money and fund this strike force ... which will have a greater impact on the problems in this state than anything else we can do."

    An alternative approach to immigration reform, in the guise of a guest-worker program, was pitched to the committee earlier this month by the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce. It found some positive response Thursday in the form of a resolution formally requesting the state's congressional delegation to seek federal waivers on the creation of the two-year program, and exceptions in the use of FICA and Medicare withholdings from those guestworkers' paychecks.

    One additional bill recommended by the committee would create a tiered, driver's license system, proposed to take effect in 2010, which would have the state issuing three different documents signifying the legal right to operate a motor vehicle, each dependent on the recipient's citizenship status.

    U.S. citizens and resident aliens would continue to get the standard state-issued driver's license. Residents who have only temporary residency status (work visa, student visa, etc.) would be issued a limited-term license that is identical to the standard driver's license, except for an expiration date that coincides with the termination of legal presence.

    The third option, the driving privilege card, is available to those who cannot document legal status but have an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (issued by the IRS to individuals who cannot obtain a Social Security number and are issued regardless of immigration status) or a Matricula Consular card issued by a Mexican Consulate in the state of Utah to a Mexican nationalNational. The driving privilege card's value is limited to the legal right to drive and cannot be used as a form of identification for purchasing alcohol or to travel.

    This new system also puts the state in conformance with upcoming federal Real ID mandates due to take effect on Jan. 1, 2010.

    http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,705271558,00.html
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  3. #3
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    Huntsman questions whether new immigration law is needed
    By Bob Bernick Jr.
    Deseret News
    Published: December 19, 2008

    Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. doesn't believe that a controversial state immigration law will take effect, as it is now on the books, come July 1.

    Speaking to KCPW Radio, the governor said that so much has changed since SB81 was first passed by the 2008 Legislature — specifically the poor U.S. economy with huge job losses leading to illegal immigrants actually going back to Mexico and South America — that there just is not the immediate need to crack down on illegal immigration today.

    Huntsman told the public radio station that Oklahoma is being sued by both sides of the controversial issue in that state's attempt to deal with illegal immigrants.

    And with Utah running a tax revenue deficit in the hundreds of millions of dollars, he said another high-cost program (SB81 will cost the state an estimated $1 million a year), is just not required now.

    "Something remarkable has happened since we last debated this in a most emotional fashion," said Huntsman, who signed SB81 last March only after demanding a number of changes to the controversial bill.

    People who came to the U.S. to find "a good job are now going back," said the governor.

    Illegal immigration "is not the issue it was two or three years ago. We're not producing the jobs, not creating the stimulus that would bring people over the border," he said.

    "Before we rush headlong into anything, first of all listen very carefully to what the federal government is going to do," Huntsman said, adding that one reason national Republicans took a beating in the 2008 elections is because they lost the Hispanic vote by 2-to-1 to Democratic candidates and the "critical" tone of Republicans on immigration was a big factor in those numbers.

    Huntsman made his cautionary remarks Thursday as the Legislature's special immigration study committee held its last meeting — where a number of groups asked that SB81 either be greatly changed or just junked.

    But Republicans on the committee said they would, indeed, move ahead with the law — which has several parts, including penalties for employers who hire undocumented workers and provisions for local law enforcement officers to act as immigration officers and arrest illegals.

    The incoming House majority whip, Rep. Brad Dee, R-Washington Terrace, said as a member of the powerful Executive Appropriations Committee, he would work hard to find the required $1 million to implement SB81 by taking the money from some other less-worthy state program.

    E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com

    http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,705271692,00.html
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  4. #4
    Senior Member Dixie's Avatar
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    still do not have good numbers that tell us the effect of illegal immigration on this state," said Rep. Stephen Clark.
    So, that has noting to do with enforceing the law and meeting the deadline in the legislastion.

    Dixie
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  5. #5
    Senior Member SOSADFORUS's Avatar
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    How hard do they have to be hit up side the head before they realize the impact of illegal immigration on their state!

    All anyone has to do is open their eyes look around see the over crowding of their schools and jails....their crowded hopitals emergancy rooms and that they are going broke, come on this really does not take a rocket scientist!! WHY DO WE KEEP PUTTING IDIOTS LIKE THIS IN OFFICE!!
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