Reader comments
Major immigration bill held by Senate

Compassion should be given to those who have been waiting for years to enter the US. They are always forgotten in this dialogue. They deserve our compassion and praise for respecting our laws. Those who break our laws do not.

It's just a bad idea. An idea who's time has not come yet, and will go away in the face of public input soon. Utah will be embarrassed by this present out of step effort. The Church will be embarrassed by these wrong minded efforts of its people who try to legislate against compassion and poverty in this way. Even the feds don't have a real penalty for "illegal" immigrants. Utah please don't embarrass us with this wrong minded bill 81.

No amount of word smithing will do any good. Put it in the round file and work on something important. Like how to improve education in the state, and include immigrants. Like send a message to Washington D C that they need to trash the existing immigration rules, for our neighbors from Mexico, and they need to encourage tolerance by us citizens. Not tolerance after assmiilation, not tolerance after waiting in line, not tolerance after they find a job, not tolerance after passing over some other hurdle. But real tolerance for our poor neighbors from Mexico. Then helpfulness.

Lost is the dialouge is the fact that our immigration laws are antiquated, needless, and beauracratic. If we simplified the laws into something useful, people wouldnt' have to wait years, employers could hire legally, competition would thrive, the fair market system would run as its intended. Instead, we fight and bicker to support this huge, money draining government agency that does no good, and we strive to keep the market placed unfairly balanced by eliminating cheap labor.
How conservative is that?

There are MANY American citizens who are married to Illegals. When they married, these issues were not a big deal.

1. We've filed papers to legalize.

2. We must leave the country to legalize my wife and children.

3. We cannot leave to do so, because Curtis Bramble took away drivers liscenses, so my wife and children cannot board a plane.

4. The laws to come legally make it impossible to do so.

5. It is not the State's responsibility to act on immigration in this way. It is the State's job to put pressure on Washington to fix it there FIRST! Then the States can begin to act if needed.

6. AS and American Citizen, it should be fairly easy and not too expensive for me to marry Whom I want. American or not. But it is all but impossible to repair a mistake made years ago in this situation.

7. Many of you would hate my wife and children. You would split up our family for years, if not forever. And you go on as if nothing has happened. Something is happening. A good woman, and beautiful children are being destroyed. Magnify this by 15-20 million. I'm crying

The majority of Utahns demand action on illegal immigration now. The laws already accomdate LEGAL immigrants. In our country the rule of the majority rules the day. I hope all lawmakers will support the law and not set a double standard for illegal lawbreakers.

So, what does the bill mean by transporting? Is it like mass trafficking of illegal aliens or can we get in trouble for simply giving someone a ride? Are we going to have to ask everyone that gets in our car to show legal status now? I have many Hispanic and Asian friends that I give rides to all the time and I am not going to be asking them for immigration status when giving them a ride. I know it may sound silly to some, but with the way things are going, I would not put it past some zealous lawmaker to mean just giving someone a ride.

Senators Hatch and Bennett met with the State Legislature and said Federal Immigration Laws won't change before the election - or maybe even until 5 years from now. Since the Feds won't do anything about this, I am grateful that the State Legislature IS trying to do something to curb illegal immigration in our state, and they have my support. IF we grant amnesty to 20 million people, the next thing they will want is family reunification, because it is "unfair" to separate families. It is estimated that 5 additional people will come for each one granted amnesty. Thats 125 Million more people into our country within a period of 10 years. Is that the kind of America you want to end up with??? Where will the water and infrastructure come from. How will we generate the additional electrical power for them? These are real issues we need to consider. Do you love America and want to keep some order to it, or do you want it overrun???

108 million Mexicans in Mexico
300 million US citizens.

So even if half of all Mexicans (still in Mexico) it would only about double the current amount of Latinos in America.

However in a divided 50/50 political democracy even a few percent end up as the power brokers and thus basically void the two party system.

Even France, England, Belgium have stopped their laws giving citizenship baby born to foreign parents.

To Humble opinion. I'm in that situattion. I'm an american cutizen, but my husband is illigal we filed for his greencard and know he might have to leave the country for up to 10 years, when he returns he needs to prove that he has been out of the counry all 10 yrs. And they said I cannot go live with him because I am an AMERICAN citizen.

The pro-illegal immigration forces have won again.

But hey, at least we'll have cheap produce!

Our state seems to be a magnet for illegal immigrants. Our education dollars are being stretched to educate their children. our medical facilities are being over run with their needs of course they don't have the means to pay. I have a friend who is married to a fellow one day she comes home to find 7 uncles, whatever in her home. apparently the only people prospering off this situation are the profit driven employers its nice to build wealth off the labors of others. It would be nice to identify those business profiting and require them to off set the costs they should be paying to educate the kids, cover medical costs, pay for the subsidized housing. Let the voices of be compassionate pay for the extra tuition, medical costs, education. tried of constantly increasing taxes.overcrowded classrooms. truth is if we weren't trying to educate thousands of illegals our own my get a better education. with other states tightening the belt where do you think they're coming. and as the ecomomy slows who job do you think they will take next.

My friend is a cop in Ogden I asked about what ratio of his calls involve an illegal immigrant.... 3 out of 4.

For decades Americans and Utahns haven't made much of an issue about illegals because we were mostly happy to see them become part of the American dream and they were nearly all hardworking family loving people (the sort we need more of in this country) Reagan signed the first amnesty bill to offset the power of the unions and Bush nearly signed the second.

However Latino ghettos and urban gangs explosive growth is what is making Americans say fix it! (meaning the welfare and crime problems associated with too much too fast immigration policies) How is that racist?

The black community used to struggle with this same thing where majority of hardworking decent sort take heat for the urban ghetto sorts. Part of this is because of "identity politics" it cuts two ways once you lump yourself in as a group you take the blame for the other part. Black community leaders have learned to distance themselves and condemn "the few trouble makers".

Latino community leaders also need to learn this lesson. In fear you think if you don't defend everyone of your race then you will all suffer. Truth is the opposite. Most of the suffering now is because latino leaders havent vocally enough condemned the latino gangs and permant welfare urban lifestyle. (which represents only a small wart sized group of the whole)

Ha, very funny. Yeah, try making it illegal for businesses to hire illegals. All you have to do is look at every construction site in the state and you have dozens of illegal immigrants working. Try to have those companies fined or prosecuted for hiring illegal immigrants and see what a fine mess the state will be in.

but there are 50,000 irish who are undocumented also according to the INS. Add all the numbers together and the numbers are still growing in all the undocumented. I pray for my children as I will be leaving to set up elsewhere, they will be entering a workforce which will be drastically effected by all these numbers as they migrate into this state. I don't blame them as Word is out in the surrounding states about how hospitalble Utah has become. Perhaps our law makers haven't been listening and should just give them the vote so others can take their place. When one decides to infiltrate another country by illegal means it then becomes a hazard of the game to expect less then favorable circumstances. The present system is obsolete and too archaic to handle such numbers as will be comming. Had our leaders really been studying and shown vision way before hand ..they would not be worrying about re-wording this bill. Be ready for the onslaught, then we see just how compassionate everyone is with the overcrowding.

Apparently, "palatable to religious and business organizations" is another word for maintaining the status quo. When are we going to start enforcing the law and stop dancing around this issue??? The best way to impact the illegal immigration problem is to penalize employers who hire them. And I have little sympathy for anyone who knowingly marries an illegal. The states need to do what's right for its citizens because the Federal Government certainly isn't going to. Might offend a few Hispanic voters!

To Dave 4197: You seem to be the constant voice for throwing up our hands and giving it all away to the illegals. You must be a business man who benefits from the cheap labor of illegals. I happen to think this is an important piece of legislation, and so do most people living in the state. If all this embarrasses you, then move on to a more illegal friendly place.

I don't understand. I came here under a f-1 visa, finished my degree and got married to an american. We didn't go back to our home country to apply for the residence. Expensive yes, but in 7 months, we got the cards. Maybe because I was always legal? I know another person who came under a tourist visa and overstayed. She got married and applied too. She also got her card in about 7 months. I really don't know why those other spouses are asked to come back to their countries to apply for residence. Sorry for being sceptical but is that true?

Humble Opinion.....keep crying. You knew what you were doing was wrong when you married an illegal. There are always consequences to bad decisions, and yours was a very bad decision.

Something has got to be done now by our government to handle illegal immigrants, Its a joke, when you work with the public and a hispanic comes in you say hi and they immediately say "speak spanish", im tired of catering to them. They expect you to barter with them because thats what they do in their countries.
The minute they come across the border, they are breaking the law, at what point are we going to uphold our laws.
When a white person goes in for a job and a hispanic goes for the same job---the hispanic gets it because they are a tax credit for the company they apply to work at.
Illegals are welcome as long as they come legally, learn english and abide by our cultures as well as theirs.