SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - Utah's first public hearing on a new, controversial Arizona-style immigration bill may come as early as a week from Wednesday.
While the bill's sponsor has released a few details, he told ABC 4 some of the other things he has in store.
Asking drivers who have been pulled over about their immigration status, well, we knew that was going to be in the bill.
Also, no guest worker program.
But here are a few things in the bill which may come as a surprise.
First, trafficking.
If a Utah lawmen stops a large vehicle and suspects people are being illegally transported, then Sandstrom says under his the bill,
"You can question everybody in that vehicle."
Sandstrom met Monday afternoon with the governor.
Likely discussed was part of the bill which REQUIRES state workers to report suspected immigrant fraud immediately.
But Sandstrom didn't tell ABC 4 if this was because state workers, reportedly, made public a list of suspected illegal immigrants.
He says, with regards to his bill,
"If they suspect that somebody is fraudulently attempting to gain benefits here in our state, they have to turn over those names to law enforcement."
Finally, Sandstrom's bill also makes it illegal for a city to ignore any or all of his immigration bill if it becomes law.
So, ABC 4 asked if this had anything with Salt Lake's Police Chief, an outspoken critic of Arizona's law.
To which Sandstrom replied:
Sandstrom: "I kind of call it the Chief Burbank clause."
Sandstrom makes clear this is a "hard hitting" bill, which in part, goes further than Arizona's law.
But he also says his bill would, for the first time, make racial profiling illegal in Utah.
Sandstrom hopes to publicly unveil his bill by the end of this week.
He also says the bill's first public hearing may come at the legislature’s interim day on Wednesday, August 18th.
