2 bills seek to delay controversial immigration rules

As modifications to last year's sweeping reform of Utah's immigration laws begin their march through the Legislature, two newly drafted bills aim to delay implementation of the new rules.

The new bills, both of which propose delaying the effective date of SB81 from its scheduled start on July 1, 2009, to July 1, 2010, are coming from opposite sides of the aisle and separate bodies of the Legislature.

Senate Minority Leader Patricia Jones, D-Holladay, said she's not convinced SB81 provides the right solution to solving Utah's immigration issues, and she worries that its provisions may actually have a negative impact on the state's current financial woes.

"In a year in which a great deal of the state budget is looking at cuts, how we're approaching immigration ... and how that approach may affect employers in the state doesn't make sense," Jones said. "We need to come together and work out a way to make good decisions."

Jones' bill, SB113, was introduced Monday and awaits committee assignment.

In the House, Rep. Stephen Clark, R-Provo, made good on a promise he levied during last summer's series of interim committee meetings tasked with working out the kinks of SB81.

In those meetings, Clark asked many of those who testified on both sides of the issue what economic impact undocumented residents have on the state. No facts were forthcoming from those inquiries, so Clark is proposing a study of the issue in HB107, with an attached $150,000 price tag, in addition to a request for a one-year delay. Clark said a thoughtful pause was the appropriate next step to take.

"There shouldn't be any appetite to rush on this," Clark said. "Let's get all the information we need to make good choices ... and amend this in a way where we're not disrupting employers and actually address the cost of illegal immigrants, if there really is a cost."

Two national reports on the economic impact of immigrants concluded that, rather than representing a cost, the net economic effect is positive.

A 1997 report by the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences concluded that immigrants generate public revenue in excess of their costs to the public in their lifetimes — about $80,000 more in taxes than they receive in local, state and federal benefits.

Another evaluation, made in 2007 by the Council of Economic Advisers in a report to the Executive Office of the President, said "the long-run impact of immigration on public budgets is likely to be positive."

In the meantime, bills seeking to modify the tenets of SB81 have made their first steps toward the law books — or the tombs.