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West Valley City • The day after a group of residents proposed a municipal ordinance that would require businesses to check the legal status of their employees and impose sanctions on those who knowingly hire undocumented workers, opponents asked Mayor Mike Winder to shelve the idea.
Peggy Wilson called the proposal "mean-spirited" and said the E-Verify system used to check workers' statuses can produce false positives. Pepe Gutiérrez said the regulation would hurt fathers who are working to support their children.
"Immigrants built this country," Gutiérrez said. "We came to this country to work together with you."
Gutiérrez and Wilson were among 15 demonstrators who showed up at City Hall on Wednesday to oppose the proposal. During an impromptu meeting with Winder, the protesters said the city should let the federal government handle immigration reforms.
Winder, who thanked the demonstrators for their input, said the City Council will look at the proposed ordinance informally and that no decision has been made on whether to formally study it.
The proposed ordinance would require employers in West Valley City to useE-Verify to determine the legal status of their workers and would suspend their business license on a first offense and permanently revoke it on a second offense. The proposal was signed by eight West Valley City residents, including Matthew Bell, who presented it Tuesday to the City Council.
The proposed ordinance is patterned after a proposed county ballot measure that targets HB116, a guest-worker bill signed into law by Gov. Gary Herbert that levies fines against undocumented workers and requires them to pass background checks before being allowed to legally live and work in Utah. Former U.S. Rep. Merrill Cook is leading the drive to get that measure on county ballots.
Bell, an ironworker, told The Salt Lake Tribune on Wednesday that his group's proposal is designed to close any loopholes in cases where a county ordinance wouldn't cover a business within West Valley City limits. He said many jobs in his field have been taken by undocumented workers.
"My trade has been co-opted by illegal aliens," Bell said.
Protester Nathan Goodman, a math major at the University of Utah, said having to deal with the ordinance's red tape would hurt businesses.
"A business's resources should go toward providing goods and services," Goodman said.
Daniel Argueta said he knows many documented immigrants who are falsely accused of being in the United States illegally.
"This sends the wrong message" about whether West Valley is a city that welcomes business, Argueta said.