After hearing Arizona state Sen.-elect Russell Pearce blame much of society's crime problems on undocumented immigrants, Utah Rep. Neil Hansen, D-Ogden, said they aren't solely responsible for criminal activity. Pearce responded that if they are here illegally, then that's a crime.
Hansen asked facetiously if the government should just shoot immigrants at the border. And that comment was met by a burst of applause by a section of the audience at Dixie State College.
The meeting of the Legislature's Interim Committee on Immigration was as informative as it was inflammatory.
The committee, which comprises 11 members of Utah's House and Senate, has been traveling the state to collect input on a Senate bill concerning undocumented workers that takes effect in July 2009. Under provisions of SB81, employers with government contracts must verify employment eligibility using a Social Security number run through a new federal program called E-Verify.
The program could be made mandatory as a hiring formality for all Utah businesses.
Gloria Aitken, an official with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said that once an employer registers with the system, all that is required is inputting an employee's Social Security number, which is then checked with databases of Social Security Administration and National Homeland Security.
If the information checks out, the employer gets an immediate response verifying the information is valid. If not, the system returns a tentative non-confirmation, which gives the employee eight days to correct errors with the information or it is classified as a non-confirmation, allowing the employer to fire the worker.
The system is applied to workers after their hiring. Businesses registered with the system must display a poster showing they are in the program. The program is designed to be unbiased and to cover workers regardless of race or immigration status. Its purpose is to crack down on identity theft.
Barbara Szweda, a public policy advocate with American Civil Liberties Union of Utah, told the panel to go slow, claiming errors in a person's information, like a misspelled name or wrong date of birth, could harm employment opportunities. Even if the right information is used and not verified, eight days dealing with the federal government is often too little time to clear up anything, Szweda said.
Pearce, a former law-enforcement official, stressed any undocumented immigrant can be arrested by any police officer and that special federal criteria concerning an arrest, like questioning a suspect about immigrant status, is a myth. He also said employers are drawing immigrants across the border.
“It's the corporate oligarchy who want cheap labor, and a few on the left who want to change the demographic,” Pearce said. “They're joining hands on the backside.”
mhavnes@sltrib.com
