2008 Utah Legislation

Bills possibly affecting illegal immigration

			Passed
HB0026	Notary Public Revisions	Donnelson, G.	HOUSE
HB0095	Document Fraud - Establishing Legal Status	Morgan, K.	HOUSE
HB0098	Utah Employment Verification Act	Donnelson, G.	HOUSE
HB0237	Illegal Immigration Enforcement Act	Donnelson, G.	HOUSE
HB0239	Driver License Qualification Amendments	Donnelson, G.	HOUSE
HB0241	Repeal of Exemptions from Nonresident Tuition	Donnelson, G.	HOUSE
HB0257	Employee Verification	Herrod, C.	HOUSE
HB0262	Recovery of Federal Reimbursement for Costs Associated with Illegal Immigrants	Morgan, K.	HOUSE
HB0285	Licensing Eligibility	Sandstrom, S.
HB0302	Citizenship Determination of Incarcerated Individuals	Sandstrom, S.
HJR001	Resolution Addressing International Trade Issues	Allen, S.	HOUSE
SB0052	Identity Theft Amendment	Walker, C.	SENATE
SCR005	Concurrent Resolution Calling for Congress to Pass Balanced Immigration Reform	Stephenson, H.
Abandon	Unfair Trade Practice - Hiring Illegal Aliens	McCoy, S.
SB0081	Illegal Immigration	Hickman, J.
SB0097	Immigration Task Force	Jenkins, S.

SCR 5 Concurrent Resolution Calling for Congress to Pass Balanced Immigration Reform

SCR005 Concurrent Resolution Calling for Congress to Pass Balanced Immigration Reform - Sen. Howard Stephenson.

Official purpose: "This concurrent resolution of the Legislature and the Governor urges Utah's congressional delegation to work with the United States Congress to pass effective and meaningful immigration reform to enhance the workforce of Utah and continue the economic strength of the state's business environment."

This is a bill working towards increasing LEGAL immigration, particularly "seasonal employees." Line 50 of the proposal states:

• "WHEREAS, current immigration law addresses neither documented U.S. labor shortages nor marketplace dynamics, and without a lawful avenue to provide seasonal employees, encourages continued unlawful immigration to the U.S. which continues to negatively impact the state's economy"

While the author is correct about illegal aliens' negative impact, there IS a lawful avenue for seasonal employees - the H2A Visa "The H-2A temporary agricultural visa is a nonimmigrant visa which allows foreign nationals to enter into the U.S. to perform agricultural labor or services of a temporary or seasonal nature." If the complaint is about the speed or number of H2A visas - that would be the item to address. The problem seems possibly to stem form the realization of the H2A worker that better employment can be obtained by ignoring the visa and gaining employment in the better paying industries (e.g. construction) and remaining illegally in the US.

While it may be worthy to declare: "that the Legislature and the Governor express their opposition to granting blanket amnesty to undocumented persons and urge that appropriate sanctions be a part of any solution." Previous calls for Federal Immigration reform have repeatedly been calls for AMNESTY disguised a fine, but giving the malefactor the benefit of remaining PERMANENTLY in the US - with a Pathway to citizenship.

The most egregious failing of this resolution is "BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Legislature and the Governor urge that all components of Utah state government work to ensure that any efforts to effect immigration laws or laws related to Utah's workforce that impact immigration be deferred until Congress passes immigration reform pursuant to the principles stated in this resolution."

This would apparently mean NOTHING would be passed (if the resolution were to be followed)

(Addendum: The Bill was amended in Committee to remove THAT clause 2/18 and was subsequently passed)

The Utah Legislature CAN, SHOULD and, hopefully, WILL pass legislation THIS YEAR throttling the benefit magnet for illegals to flock to our fair state.

DNews article