up date on Utah's CIR!!!

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/51...strom.html.csp

By david montero
The Salt Lake Tribune
First published Jan 07 2011 06:43PM
Updated Jan 8, 2011 12:26AM Incoming Utah House Speaker Becky Lockhart is among several lawmakers who said there is growing momentum for the Legislature to cobble together a comprehensive immigration reform bill, but Rep. Stephen Sandstrom said Friday he is steadfastly committed to pitching his enforcement-only measure on its own.
“I’d be unwilling to roll my bill into any kind of omnibus bill,” Sandstrom said. “It has widespread support.”
But the Orem Republican may be facing a shifting tide as Republican caucuses in both the House and Senate prepare to meet and figure out ways to avoid a logjam of immigration bills when the legislative session starts Jan. 24.
The number of immigration-related bills facing the Legislature is estimated to be between 16 and 25. Most of the bills haven’t been made public yet.
Lockhart, who was elected speaker in November, said a move toward combining bills that tackle employment, enforcement and guest worker programs “would be beneficial to the process” and said she thought the Senate was moving in a positive direction toward that goal.
She pointed to a guest worker bill being authored by Rep. Bill Wright, R-Holden, as a possible platform for building upon. Wright’s bill is a worker’s permit program for noncitizens.
“I know the Senate has talked about maybe having that kind of process begin there, so I think that’s a valid option to pursue,” Lockhart said in an interview with The Tribune. “Whether or not we can reach agreement or reach consensus on the issue remains to be seen.”
And Majority Leader Brad Dee said with 75 House members having an opportunity to debate, amend and discuss a hot-button bill like Sandstrom’s, it could hamstring the Legislature in considering other issues during the 45-day session.

“I do think there is an appetite for making sure this is not the issue that dominates the session when we are in a situation with the budget and other things where we have so many other responsibilities right now,” Dee said.
The option that appears to be gathering steam is having Sen. Curt Bramble carry forward an omnibus immigration bill.
He has been meeting with both House and Senate members about being the sponsor of that bill, and the Provo Republican will make a slide-show presentation to the Senate Republican Caucus on Monday.
That presentation is the same one Bramble made at the National Conference of State Legislatures in Arizona last month where he took on illegal immigration firebrand Russell Pearce, sponsor of Arizona’s law, on a panel that discussed the merits and problems of enforcement-only approaches.
Bramble’s position was that an enforcement-only approach wasn’t the best way to go. He told Sandstrom late last year that he would offer an amendment to his bill that would prevent mere possession of a Utah driver privilege card from being sufficient “reasonable suspicion” that a person was in the country illegally.
The driver privilege card was created in legislation introduced by Bramble in 2005. It was passed and signed into law, allowing undocumented people to obtain insurance to legally drive in Utah. Lockhart was the House sponsor of that bill.
Sandstrom’s bill would require local police to enforce federal law by detaining suspected undocumented immigrants caught committing a crime or traffic infraction. But unlike under Arizona law, police could only check the status of the person alleged to have committed the crime, not the people in the suspect’s company, such as passengers in a vehicle.
Lockhart said Sandstrom made a presentation to the Republican House Caucus last month to show all of the changes he’s made to the bill and demonstrate how it has moved away from the Arizona law. She said his willingness to amend his bill showed a good-faith effort in trying to work toward a solution.

so weird.. Brigham Young University is one of the least friendliest universities and yet Utah's introducing CIR..

Um... I find this a bit odd.. o_o
but this is good...right?

I think Cali will try to do the same thing!!!!

If you currently live in a state that hasn't or doesn't plan to pass its own CIR, would you move to a state that passed CIR?

^ Yes. My family is already making plans.

LOL, this is never going to pass. people are going to start Yelling; DOUBLE STANDARD.


Get Real.

Yelling, shouting, fuming... I can't wait to see Oreilly's show on Fox if he ever dares to touch on this subject, I bet you'd see fumes coming out of his and Lou Dobbs' ears

Yes, it is funny how pro "States Rights" Oreilly and Dobbs etc. are when it comes to trampling on people. And how they hate the federal government in general. Yet they will freak out about any state taking a position they are not in favor of !

I hear Utah is great, very pretty, reasonable prices, lots of activities and very family friendly -- a friends family moved there years ago and love it.

I hope California does this -- with the new Governor, there might be a shot ? It would make a huge positive impact here. The state needs the increased tax revenue badly.

Yes, if the candidate meets the qualifications.