Utah House abruptly halts debate on bill targeting immigrants; future of measure unclear

SALT LAKE CITY — Amid continuing questions and concerns, Utah House members on Monday abruptly halted debate on a controversial measure meant to prevent immigrants in the country illegally from tapping into public health benefits like emergency housing and food.

After about 25 minutes of floor discussion on Monday, the Utah House circled HB88 amid what some say are continuing questions about the measure, ending debate, at least for now. Lawmakers could uncircle the measure and resume the discussion.

"I'm sure, like many of you, my phone's kind of blowing up back here with stakeholders who don't understand quite what this bill will mean for them and I think we deserve to give them an opportunity to take a look at it," said Rep. Karen Peterson, R-Clinton, who made the motion to circle. She's heard concerns from city and county officials about how the bill would impact the provision of emergency public services, senior meal programs and more.

The House approved the motion to circle in a voice vote, but not before Rep. Trevor Lee, R-Layton and the HB88 sponsor, pushed back. The Utah House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee voted 7-3 on Feb. 17 to send HB88 to the full Utah House for consideration with a favorable recommendation

"I reject that motion. I think we've had plenty of time to talk to stakeholders. I met with many of them. I believe this bill is very clear on how this works," Lee said. He suspects the push to circle is a maneuver by people who don't want the bill to pass.

HB88, now in its sixth incarnation as debate about it has progressed, would essentially halt the ability of immigrants in the country illegally to tap into many benefits paid for with state funding. Those services include food handed out at food banks, space at homeless shelters, immunizations for communicable diseases, tuition assistance and other nonemergency medical care.

Lee, who has put forward other proposals targeting immigrants in the country illegally, characterized HB88 as a means of responsibly using taxpayer money and reserving the use of such funds for citizens and those in the country legally. He has also aligned it with moves by the administration of President Donald Trump to crack down on illegal immigration.

"We have very limited funds. Every session, we have many different groups who come to us asking for these funds, and we are tasked to be good safeguards of those funds," Lee said.

HB88 wouldn't prevent private charities from assisting people in the country illegally, provided they're not using state funds. Moreover, the latest version was tweaked to remove some of its prohibitions. The bill wouldn't prevent those in the country illegally from being able to get crisis counseling for mental health issues and wouldn't apply to those under the age of 18. It was amended during Monday's discussion to remove a provision prohibiting domestic violence survivors from being able to seek counseling funded with state money.

The measure, nevertheless, has drawn sharp criticism from lawmakers and others who see it as harsh, and the critics, both Democrats and Republicans, reiterated their reservations. Another point of contention for critics is a provision that would make it an infraction for state workers to disregard the proposal's requirement that recipients of impacted aid be in the country lawfully. As previously proposed, the violation would have been a class B misdemeanor.

"Our safety nets in many places are already pretty thin; people fall through them already," said Rep. Raymond Ward, R-Bountiful. "But if we deliberately go back and say, in this place, in this place, in this place, even for a thing as basic as food, we're going to take action against (whoever) tries to help you out — to me, that is not right and that's a road that I hope we do not go down."

Lawmakers can't "hide behind some sort of bureaucratic shield and deny people food," said Rep. Cheryl Acton, R-West Jordan. She supports "immigration efforts and self-deportation and all of those things, but I can't go there with this bill."

Rep. Andrew Stoddard, D-Sandy, suspects the value of benefits impacted by HB88 for immigrants in the country illegally is minimal.

"We have no evidence that there are people who are taxpayers who are not getting these services, who are not getting food because they're going to immigrants. That's just not a thing. That's not a problem," Stoddard said. Some nonprofit groups, he said, estimate immigrants in the country illegally are "paying $250 million into our state, into Utah every year."

Rep. Matt MacPherson, R-West Valley City, said the bill raises legitimate debate about what sort of programming should be paid for with taxpayer money. "There's a big difference between what charity means and what taxpayer money means. I think that the more we engage the state in taking over charity...the more we take away from charitable acts that are done freely in this state by the majority of Utahns," he said.

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