Rep. Chris Herrod, R-Provo, is using his position in the state Legislature to waste everyone's time with an immigration bill, HB300, that would stop funding and end the Peace Officers Standards and Training certification for Utah police chiefs who choose not to enforce immigration statutes.
Herrod is running for the U.S. Senate, where a malicious folly such as House Bill 300 might appeal to a few ultra-conservative state delegates who regard illegal immigration as the most important issue in the U.S. today. The rest of us see Herrod's proposal for what it is -- another example of a groveling pol wasting time and money on an issue that for now is in the hand of the courts.
One person Herrod is obviously targeting is Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank, who is opposed to having local police enforce immigration laws. Herrod's shot at Burbank and other chiefs will have little chance of being sensible until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on states' efforts to enforce immigration laws. There are several working their way through judicial channels, including laws in Utah, Arizona and Alabama. So we urge the Legislature to ignore HB300 for now. There are more important issues to deal with.
There are other components of HB300 that may be worth looking at when the courts decide what power states have in regards to immigration. Herrod's proposal wants to modify a recent law in Utah that sets up a guest worker program. It would include two tiers for persons with expired visas toward being eligible to work, one for parents who work and are otherwise living lawfully and another for persons who have committed minor offenses. The latter would have to leave the U.S. and reapply for a visa.
Those may be legitimate topics of discussion as Utah attempts to fine-tune its guest worker law prior to its implementation. But until we get a clear judicial review on how far states can enter into immigration enforcement, we can ditch HB300.
Comments