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The Coalition of Utah Progressives decried immigration bills under consideration by the Utah Legislature at a Sunday press conference, calling four of the bills irresponsible and a grandstand for political posturing.
In front of the Wallace F. Bennett Federal Building in downtown Salt Lake City, three members of the local advocacy group read a prepared statement and held brightly colored signs, castigating legislators for what they said are money-wasting and unconstitutional efforts to address immigration reform at the local and state level. In addition, the group called on congressional representatives to work with President Barack Obama in reforming federal immigration policy.
"Any state immigration bill is illegal," coalition co-founder Peggy Wilson said.
The group attacked immigration-reform bills sponsored during this legislative session, including four that might be consolidated in a potential omnibus bill discussed by lawmakers: House Bill 70, which would require local and state police to enforce federal immigration laws; Senate Bill 60, which would require undocumented immigrants living in Utah for longer than two years to get a card that registers them in a system set up by the Department of Public Safety; House Bill 116, which would establish a guest worker program for undocumented workers that would require background checks, proof of insurance and a Utah driving privilege card; and House Bill 253, which would require businesses with five or more employees to register with E-Verify, the federal government's program that tracks the legal status of workers.
Of the latter, co-founder Michael Picardi called the E-Verify system a "sham" and criticized lawmakers for making immigration reform a "wedge issue."
The legislative bills are unconstitutional, Wilson said, because the bills are preempted by federal law. The bills, if enacted, she continued, would burden law enforcement, tax Utah's incarceration facilities and create costly legal battles in light of lawsuits encountered by Arizona when it passed a constitutionally challenged enforcement-only law in 2010.
Federal immigration reform is needed, the group said, but Utah representatives such as Sen. Orrin Hatch are "dragging their feet."
Sponsors of the bills argue that the state needs to act because immigration reform at the federal level is being stalled, and that some bills, including House Bill 70, don't require police to do more than what they'd already been doing. Hatch visited the Utah House and Senate last week, and said the first priority remained securing the borders before attempting to solve other aspects of the issue.