Utah Legislature passes package of immigration bills

SALT LAKE CITY — State lawmakers pushed through a series of bills touted as a Utah solution to illegal immigration, though it nearly crumbled like a House of cards late Friday night.

The package includes provisions for enforcement, a guest worker program, a migrant worker partnership with Mexico and employee verification and employer sanctions.

"This is an attempt to enact at the state level the very policies we have expected the federal government to enact for years," said Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, one of the primary movers behind the effort.

Sen. Luz Robles, D-Salt Lake, whose bill was swallowed in the comprehensive approach, said Utah will be perceived nationally as a "state not scared of facing very complicated issues."

The Senate, primarily through Bramble, thought it had a deal with the House after passing several bills, including Rep. Stephen Sandstrom's enforcement-only and migrant worker partnership bills, and adjourning Friday evening. The bill passed easily and with no heated debate.

"We're set with immigration," Senate President Michael Waddoups, R-Taylorsville, said afterward.

But House members during heated and impassioned debate nearly shot down the lynchpin piece, Rep. Bill Wright's HB116 that contains a guest worker program. The Senate rolled enforcement and employee verification into that bill to create a comprehensive measure before sending it back to the House.

The House eventually passed the bill 41-32.

"I will call this what it is. This is pure and simple amnesty," said Rep. Chris Herrod, R-Provo, one of the most ardent critics of allowing illegal immigrants to work in the state.

"That has done more harm to the state of Utah than anything we've ever done," he told supporters afterward.

Legislative attorneys attached a note to Wright's bill saying the guest worker program would be unconstitutional absent the federal government granting Utah authority to implement it. The bill calls for the program to start July 1, 2013, regardless.

Several House members said they couldn't support the the bill for that reason, even though they overwhelmingly passed it with the guest worker provision before the Senate amended it.

"It unconstitutional. Clearly," said Rep. Brian King, D-Salt Lake. "We shouldn't be wasting our time with it. We shouldn't be wasting our money with it."