Latino leaders address SB81 fears

HYDE PARK, Cache County — Nearly 500 members of Cache Valley's Latino community packed St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church Thursday to learn more about SB81, a new immigration reform bill.

The measure is slated to take effect July 1 and has thousands of immigrants across the state scrambling for answers.

"People are panicked," said Tony Yapias, director of Projecto Latino de Utah. "There's a lot of anxiety in the Latino community because this law isn't fully understood, and the message we want to send is 'calm down, have patience, let's wait to see what happens.' "

Carlos, a 35-year-old immigrant from El Salvador, fears that SB81 will make it more difficult for him to find housing.

"If the legislation makes it illegal for my family members to give me shelter, where will I stay?" he asked. "I am college-educated in my country and I speak English, but since you're not from here, you don't know how the law works. You have to learn how to survive by yourself. Period."

Aimed at tightening restrictions on the services available to illegal immigrants throughout the state, SB81 addresses the incarceration of illegal immigrants, the issuance of liquor licenses to illegal immigrants who own businesses and the unauthorized transportation and harboring of illegal immigrants for commercial gain. It also addresses the establishment of a fraudulent documents identification unit and expands the scope of the state's employment status verification system.

Estimates suggest that 130,000 to 150,000 undocumented immigrants currently reside in Utah.

"What we've seen in the community is a complete lack of knowledge about what to expect with this bill," said Rolando Murillo, a Logan community activist who coordinated the meeting. "We're not doing this to defend criminals, but I think that the human side of immigration reform gets overlooked. We wanted to bring people together so they can understand the implications of the law. There are a lot of fears out there, and we wanted to bring the Latino community some peace of mind."

The meeting focused on outlining SB81's legal ramifications, focusing on the bill's most misunderstood provisions.