Thread: UT: Sandstrom's immigration bill clears Utah House committee

Sandstrom's immigration bill clears Utah House committee

By Dennis Romboy
Deseret News
February 12, 2011
SALT LAKE CITY, UT

A proposed enforcement-only illegal immigration law that some say could define Utah's image for years to come cleared its first hurdle on Friday.

After more than three hours of dueling statistics, emotional anecdotes and points of law, the House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee voted 9-3 to advance HB70 to the House.

Seven of the 12 members are co-sponsors of the bill.

Only Democrats cast the dissenting votes.

"I'm relieved in the sense that the process has started," the bill's author said Rep. Stephen Sandstrom, R-Orem, said, noting he has spent 10 months crafting the legislation.

Sandstrom, who has wooed moderate Republicans and even a couple of Democrats with recent tweaks to the bill, said he believes he has the votes to get it through the House.

The Senate, which favors a comprehensive approach, will pose a challenge. "This bill is necessary.

We need a deterrent. Some people say this bill goes too far. Some say it doesn't go far enough. This is a starting point," he told the committee.

Rep. David Litvack, D-Salt Lake, said the law wouldn't push illegal immigrants out of Utah because it's nothing more than a catch-and-release program.

"We're putting forth this false perception that this is going to solve something," he said. "It is not."

Utahns agree with Sandstrom that the state needs to get tough on illegal immigrants and they really don't care about the price tag.

Local government balked at initial estimates putting the annual cost at as much as $11 million annually.

But in a Deseret News/KSL poll conducted this week before Sandstrom made changes to the bill that he said would reduce the costs, 55 percent of residents say the law would be worth additional resources to enforce.

39 percent say it wouldn't be worth it, while 7 percent didn't know.

The survey of 496 Utahns was conducted by Dan Jones & Associates Feb. 8-10.

It has an error margin of plus or minus 4 percent.

HB70 requires police officers to verify the legal status of people detained for class A misdemeanor and felony offenses if the officer has "reasonable suspicion" they are in the country illegally.

Those people would be handed to U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.

Officers would not have to check the status of those suspected of class B and class C misdemeanors, but could if they chose to.

It bases "reasonable suspicion" on the absence of a Utah driver's license or other valid forms of government-issue identification, including a concealed weapons permit.

Proponents and opponents of HB70 had their first opportunity Friday to sound off on the controversial measure.

More than 150 people crammed into a hearing room and an overflow room under the watchful eye of several Utah Highway Patrol troopers.

Committee Chairman Rep. Curt Oda, R-Clearfield, cautioned the audience against cheering and jeering. "If it starts getting ugly, I can have you arrested," he said at one point. It never did.

Sandstrom brought five people, including leaders of the Utah Coalition on Illegal Immigration and Utah Eagle Forum, to testify in favor of the bill.

They related anecdotes about identity theft and illegal immigrants taking Americans' jobs.

One of them, dentist Jennifer Brown, quoted Alexander Hamilton and compared illegal immigrants to microscopic bacteria on teeth.

That prompted Rep. Jen Seeling, D-Salt Lake, to ask, "Are you a dentist or a political scientist?"

Several opponents of HB70 characterized it as an Arizona-style law that the federal government is challenging in court. Utah, they said, would see economic boycotts and it's image tarnished.

Sutherland Institute executive director Paul Mero said half the bill is identical to the Arizona law. He called the Utah bill a "civil rights nightmare."

"It uses the illusion of law enforcement to simply hunt down a group of people we imagine are ruining our society," he said.

"This bill would create a false positive in the minds of citizens."

Mero said Utah would look neither smart nor courageous in passing the law.

Sandstrom said only people who want to vilify the proposal will refer to it as an Arizona-style bill.

His measure, he said, is in "sound legal territory." And, he said, any economic fallout in Arizona was short-lived. Rep. David Butterfield, R-Logan, said he struggled with the bill for a long time before figuring out what it's meant to accomplish.

"We are targeting illegal immigrants who are committing the worst crimes among us," he said.

"I really can't understand what is embarrassing and unreasonable about trying to verify the legal status of the ones that are committing the worst crimes."

Jim Wall, of the Salt Lake Convention and Visitors Bureau, said HB70 is not in keeping with the Utah Compact, a document signed by state business, government and religious leaders that encourages federal solutions and preserving families among other things.

Arturo Morales-LLan, of Legal Immigrants for Immigration Law Enforcement, asked lawmakers to "validate the faith of your constituents" who want something done about illegal immigration.

"We need to take care of our own people and help them find jobs," he said.

"That's your duty."

http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/En ... 07&start=3

Follow UTAH Legislation here:
HB 70 is the first bill on the post

http://www.alipac.us/ftopicp-1176004.html

"It uses the illusion of law enforcement to simply hunt down a group of people we imagine are ruining our society," he said.

There are all the main reasons that we all speak of like jobs, welfare fraud health care costs and on and on.

There are other smaller things that this invasion has caused also.

I live in the rurals of Oregon and I went to my local retailer last week because I needed a new flourescent bulb for my indoor garden.

All of the lamps I was looking at were manufactered by an American company? (ge) and three of the panels of the package were written in Spanish and the fourth panel was spanish first then English underneath. Sadly I made a mistake and got the wrong lamp and had to trek all the way back to exchange it.

Look on the grocers shelves and in your cupboard at how many labels are now in spanish. Now tell me that's not ruining the American way of life?
I do not want my rice krispies to be bilingual.

Btw............I have big beautiful indoor grown tomatoes and today I am making red sauce with the mators and all fresh herbs.

This indoor garden is one of the best Ideas I have ever had.

"It uses the illusion of law enforcement to simply hunt down a group of people we imagine are ruining our society," he said.

There are all the main reasons that we all speak of like jobs, welfare fraud health care costs and on and on.

There are other smaller things that this invasion has caused also.

I live in the rurals of Oregon and I went to my local retailer last week because I needed a new flourescent bulb for my indoor garden.

All of the lamps I was looking at were manufactered by an American company? (ge) and three of the panels of the package were written in Spanish and the fourth panel was spanish first then English underneath. Sadly I made a mistake and got the wrong lamp and had to trek all the way back to exchange it.

Look on the grocers shelves and in your cupboard at how many labels are now in spanish. Now tell me that's not ruining the American way of life?
I do not want my rice krispies to be bilingual.

Btw............I have big beautiful indoor grown tomatoes and today I am making red sauce with the mators and all fresh herbs.

This indoor garden is one of the best Ideas I have ever had.

God bless you! You have found away to survive these hard times and it is a miracle!!!