Controversial Immigration Reform Passes Major Senate Hurdle

Feb 22, 2008 by Elizabeth Ziegler

(KCPW News) A sweeping illegal immigration bill cleared a major hurdle in the Senate Thursday, and will likely pass out of the body today. One of the bill's most outspoken critics is Senator Scott McCoy, a Democrat from Salt Lake County, who questioned the bill's widespread impact.

"This bill does not solve the immigration problem," McCoy says. "And quite frankly, I think that it is more about let's try to get something through because 2008 in November is an election year. Rather than, are we doing the right thing policy-wise."

SB 81, sponsored by Senator John Hickman, requires businesses that contract with state and federal agencies, Sheriff's Departments, the DMV, landlords, and hospitals that receive state and federal money to verify the residency status of employees, inmates, drivers, tenants and patients. SB 81 received a 21 to 8 vote on its second reading in the Senate, but only after an attempt to change the bill's effective date to July of 2009 - a motion struck down by a narrow 15 to 12 vote. Another lawmaker in opposition to the bill is Senator Ross Romero, also Salt Lake County Democrat. Romero says the problem is so complex that lawmakers need more time to study the issue - just as the Legislature has agreed to do for health care reform.

"I think it is important to take deliberative and cautious and reasoned study before we implement something as wide-sweeping as health-care reform and in a similar vein, immigration reform," Romero says. "I'm not talking about not doing anything about immigration reform. But I am talking about studying the issue well before we embark on a change."

Changing the bill's effective date to next year would give lawmakers time to study the issue in an Immigration Task Force proposed by Weber County Senator Scott Jenkins, in SB 97. The Senate is expected to vote today on Jenkins immigration task force. Even if the Senate approves Hickman's immigration reform bill and the task force, they still face debates in the House. Click here to listen to the full floor debate.

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