Tougher stance on illegals?

"I am contacted quite frequently by constituents, I know it's important to them," she said.

That's why Morgan says she plans to introduce legislation in the 2007 Legislative session that would resemble a slate of new Colorado laws aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration.

"We are looking at unemployment benefits and welfare benefits and some of the fraud dealing with Social Security cards," Morgan said. "I'm looking at (Colorado's) full package."

The Colorado package includes measures ranging from denying most non-emergency medical benefits to adult undocumented immigrants to barring the undocumented from accessing public benefits to cracking down on those who employ undocumented immigrants.

Rep. Glenn Donnelson, R-North Ogden, said he hasn't decided whether to reintroduce legislation that would require employers to verify their workers' identity.

"The only people that have a problem with that is your construction companies," Donnelson said. "I would hope we could bring something forward."

Donnelson said he is also looking at again trying to repeal the law that grants in-state tuition to undocumented immigrants who went to a Utah high school for three years and graduated.

The tuition issue could become a divisive one at the state Legislature. In the last session, the bill was kept from a House vote, in large part by Rep. David Ure, R-Kamas, who sponsored the 2002 law.

Ure won't be returning to the Legislature after losing a Senate bid. But the law still has supporters. Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. supports keeping the current law in place, said Mike Mower, the governor's deputy chief of staff. The governor hasn't spoken with any lawmakers about other immigration issues, Mower said.

One of the law's original supporters, Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, said, "I'm prepared to defend it."

"They ought to have the same opportunity to attend college as their high school peers," he said. "Otherwise, we are sending a message to them ... you have no future."

Stephenson said he wasn't surprised by the poll results, given the limited information most people can access on the issue.

"There is a visceral reaction to illegal immigration. I have that myself," he said. "But when the federal government refuses to provide a means by which legal immigrant workers can be here, it creates a whole set of other problems that need to be addressed, and this is one of them."

Alex Segura, director of the anti-illegal immigration Utah Minuteman Project, doubted lawmakers would pay heed to the poll numbers. He pointed to past experience, such as Donnelson's bill to require employers verify workers' legal status, which died in committee.

"Lawmakers have been willing to overlook what the people have wanted in favor of the status quo," Segura said. "It will be a lot of chewing the fat without any real results."

---

E-mail: dbulkeley@desnews.com