This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Rep. Bill Wright is right. Utah's economy, particularly its farmers, needs a humane and practical program for foreign guest workers. His HB116 would be an excellent first step toward such a program were it not for one thing: The Constitution gives the federal government jurisdiction over immigration, and only the federal government can provide such a program. Any plan that Utah would institute on its own would almost surely run afoul of federal law and be struck down in the courts.
Wright, a Republican dairy farmer from Holden, tries to dodge that legal bullet in his bill by creating a Utah guest-worker program, then instructing state officials to try to obtain waivers from the federal government to allow it. But as the Legislature's lawyers have warned, federal immigration laws don't make provisions for those kinds of waivers. The chances of such waivers would be extremely remote.
Wright understands that, but he argues that the Legislature should pass his bill anyway to create a platform to pressure Congress to do its duty and reform the nation's broken immigration system. We agree with Rep. Wright in spirit, but not in principle. We can't abide passing a law that is almost certainly unconstitutional.
We would prefer to pressure the state's congressional delegation directly. Where are the comprehensive immigration reform bills, including a workable guest-worker program, from Sens. Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee, and Reps. Rob Bishop, Jim Matheson and Jason Chaffetz? They are the glib-talking, do-nothing public officials of both parties who are letting Utah down. The buck rightly stops with them.
They need look no farther than Rep. Wright's bill to find the basics of a workable plan. It would require undocumented people who are currently living in Utah but are not lawfully present in the United States to apply for a guest-worker permit in order to hold a job. They would have to be at least 18 years old, live in the state, have a contract for hire, and agree to a criminal background check, be fingerprinted and photographed. They could not be guilty of or charged with a felony. They would have to be admissible under the federal public health law, have no medical debt, and be covered by health insurance or pay a $750 fine. Employers would have to withhold state and federal taxes.
This would not grant citizenship, government benefits or resident alien status. But it would bring today's illegal foreign workers and the employers who hire them out of the shadows. Bringing people into the light under a law that makes practical sense would be a big improvement. But Congress must shine that light.