This past Thursday, a majority of senators joined me in opposing the comprehensive immigration reform bill that was being forced through the Senate. Since the Deseret Morning News publicly challenged my position, I'd like to explain why I couldn't support that proposal.

First, I strongly support immigration reform. We need stronger border and interior enforcement. We need a viable guest-worker program. We must fairly and efficiently distribute visas and green cards. And we certainly need to find a compassionate and lawful way to deal with the illegal immigrants already in this country.

I also agree that we should not give in to the xenophobic fears that some have spread in this debate. I have helped countless people suffering from our immigration system's problems stay within the law and become U.S. citizens. I'm the founder of a Senate Republican Hispanic taskforce and am the author of the DREAM Act, which would benefit many immigrant youths who are caught in legal limbo through no fault of their own.

That's why it's disheartening to see people paint those who oppose the bill in the Senate as anti-immigrant. Passions run so high on this issue that it's difficult to truly debate the merits of such vast comprehensive legislation that will impact everyone in Utah and throughout the country.

There's a process in the Senate that provides some basic protections for controversial bills. That process wasn't followed. This bill had no public hearings, no markup, no chance to be studied and have a resolution of the issues that prevented the bill from passing. Instead, the bill was developed behind closed-doors and presented as an all-or-nothing deal. Very thoughtful senators were denied the ability to bring up substantive amendments, and that gave us no real opportunity to improve the bill.

Now, I realize that this was a compromise — a bad one. Any good in the bill was vastly outweighed by the bad.

For example, after filing an application and waiting just 24 hours, illegal aliens will receive full "probationary benefits," complete with the ability to live and work legally in the United States and their own Social Security cards. Astonishingly, if the bill's border-enforcement requirements are never met, the probationary benefits granted to the illegal alien population never expire — and their new Social Security cards are not revoked.

The Senate bill has many other flaws — creating loopholes in an already disastrous system — that I could not, in good faith, support. The following are just a few of the criticisms the bill deserves:

1. Preferential treatment to lawbreakers: Aliens who broke into the country illegally a mere seven months ago are treated better than foreign nationals who legally applied to come to the United States more than two years ago.