SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - Undocumented workers in Utah fear a new law in Arizona may hurt their future. The Arizona law from Senate Bill 1070 gives police the right to ask for proof of citizenship.
Utah activists organized a rally against the Arizona law in Salt Lake City at the Centro Civico Mexicano. Undocumented workers in the Beehive State are concerned because Utah is growing the fastest illegal alien population in the nation, according to Republican Rep. Chris Herrod from Provo. There are 100,000 undocumented workers living in Utah, according to Latino Activist Tony Yapias.
Most everyone agrees lawmakers must do something about undocumented workers. "We want them to have the option to live and work freely with a work permit with an eventual path to citizenship," said Yapias.
Not so fast said Herrod, "In essence what these people are asking for are special rights. They don't want to be subject to any additional searches or inconveniences." Many Utah lawmakers would like to follow Arizona's lead. They want officers here to have to right to ask for proof of citizenship, but only if there is cause to ask.
Demonstrators at the rally say police asking for proof of citizenship is legal profiling. "For someone to say that racial profiling isn't happening now? Imagine what will happen if this law changes," said Yapias.
He said a police officer pulled his brother over in Salt Lake City because his skin is brown and he drives a Jaguar. Yapias said the police officer immediately asked his brother if he owned the car. Yapias said his brother is a legal citizen of the United States and should not have to fear police.
Herrod agrees with Yapias. He does not want police stopping people because of the color of their skin. However, he said it would be just fine for an officer in Arizona to ask for proof of citizenship from a person who does not speak English.
Herrod said, "It has nothing to do with race. It has everything to do with fundamental fairness...We are discriminating currently with our policy of non-enforcement and if we adopt amnesty we're discriminating against the Russian Jew, the Ukrainian, the Russian, the Asian the Pacific Islander." He says on average it takes a Filipino 22 years to legally immigrate to the Untied States.
Herrod says it's not fair to allow undocumented workers to go unchecked in Utah. He said they cost Utah taxpayers $100 million to educate children from undocumented families, $12 million to incarcerate undocumented workers and he claims undocumented workers have doubled demand on charitable hospitals in the last four years. Herrod claims the added stress forced many to close.
"When we go and rent or buy property they don't take the property taxes out of our rent so for someone to say we're not contributing that is wrong," replied Yapias.
The people at the rally against Arizona's law are sending a clear message to Utah- have compassion. Others in Utah are pushing for strict regulation to protect the states financial structure. Two solutions to a difficult problem growing each day.
One woman who spoke at the rally wore a shirt which read, "I'm illegal, but I'm not a criminal." Most of the people at the rally would agree with this statement. They entered the country illegally, but were offered several services once they arrived. Undocumented workers say they get mixed signals from the United States. They want their place in America. They want to contribute.
