Bill aimed at immigrants in Utah illegally sparks backlash; sponsor senses 'massive support'

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Utah's HB88, meant to prevent immigrants in the country illegally from accessing public services, faces criticism from a group that advocates for children.
Voices for Utah Children argues it contradicts state values, poses a threat to public health and could harm mixed-status families.
Rep. Trevor Lee, the HB88 sponsor, calls it "a priority bill to put Utahns first."

SALT LAKE CITY — A measure targeting immigrants in Utah illegally is spurring backlash from a children's advocacy group, worried about its provisions that would end the population's access to certain health offerings and public assistance programs.

"HB88 does not make our community safer, stronger or healthier. Instead, it goes against our Utah values and will make it so mixed-status immigrant families can no longer access currently exempt programs," Voices for Utah Children said in promotional material it created to drum up opposition to the measure.

Mixed-status families can include immigrant parents and U.S.-citizen children.

Among other things, HB88 would eliminate a long list of public services that don't require proof of lawful presence in the country to access. Those services include immunizations for certain diseases, testing for communicable diseases, crisis counseling for domestic violence survivors, access to some food at food pantries, housing at homeless shelters, disaster relief and more.

As if to reinforce that, the legislation spells out services paid for with state or local funds that state entities may not provide to those in the country illegally. Those include "nonemergency medical health care, local- or state-administered health care or health insurance, housing assistance, food assistance, cash benefits (and) tuition assistance."

The taxpayer-funded emergency and public health programs targeted by the bill, Voices for Utah Children said, "have been historically recognized as necessary, humane and protective of the well-being of all children in our state."

Voices for Children released a critical analysis of HB88 this week and is lobbying for its defeat.

Immigrants in the country illegally are focus of a handful of measures Utah lawmakers are considering this session, and Rep. Trevor Lee, R-Layton, the HB88 sponsor, noted that the issue is a priority for President Donald Trump. He expects the proposal will get a committee hearing next week and said he senses "massive support" for the measure, to be considered by the House House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee.

"It will pass. It's a priority bill to put Utahns first," said Lee.

He's also sponsoring a measure to end Utah's driver privilege card program, which lets immigrants in the country illegally get a permit allowing them to drive in the state, charging that it serves as a magnet to the population.

For Lee, HB88 is about making sure public funds are used on U.S. citizens. Idaho lawmakers passed similar legislation last year, HB135, which is now focus of a lawsuit, according to the National Immigration Law Center.

"Requiring citizenship for benefits is our moral and ethical responsibility to be good stewards of taxpayer money," Lee said.

HB88 would also:

Require audits of state agencies and entities to make sure they're compliant with the legislation's provisions.
Make failure by a state employee to verify the migratory status of those who fall under the parameters of the legislation a class B misdemeanor.
Subject state department and agency heads to firing if they don't ensure compliance with the law among the employees they oversee.
Allow Utah residents to sue state department and agency heads if they don't comply with the law.

Lee said food pantries would have to verify the citizenship or lawful migratory status of those getting food paid for with taxpayer money. "They can give food to anyone that is donated to them as a charity. But any food bought with taxpayer money needs to prioritize citizens," he said.

Likewise, homeless shelters could only provide space to those in the country legally, he said.

For Voices for Utah Children, one of the concerns with the legislation is the potential inability to provide services that may benefit the broader public, like testing for diseases.

"You want to make sure that we're testing people for communicable diseases to prevent disease spread. You want to make sure that people who are experiencing a domestic violence situation are receiving that sort of crisis counseling on the spot, when they need it," said Megan Neuf, a policy analyst for the agency. "You don't want to be thinking in those instances about whether somebody has legal status."

Neuf said the legislation would bring an end to a program created in 2023 that allows for provision of public health care to up to 2,000 immigrant children, including some in the country illegally. Then-Rep. Jim Dunnigan, R-Taylorsville, and Sen. Luz Escamilla, D-Salt Lake City, sponsored the legislation creating the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or CHIP.

HB88 could also jeopardize federal funding for certain programs and adversely impact U.S. citizen children of immigrants in the country illegally, Neuf said, while her agency worries more generally about the message the proposal sends.

"Denying basic services like those described above is not only undermining the dignity and humanity of immigrant communities, it is sending a harmful message to families across our state about who belongs," reads the Voices analysis.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.