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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A bill that would have prevented Mexican nationals from using an identification card issued by that country to obtain driver's licenses in Utah apparently has died without being debated on the House floor.
Just before the House adjourned Monday night, representatives voted to send all the remaining House bills on the calendar back to the Rules Committee. They expected to devote the final two days of the session to Senate bills.
Patricia Deluera, the Mexican consul in Utah, last week denounced House Bill 109 and said its advocates were "promoting hatred against Mexican people."
At the same time, a spokesman for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints denied the church had supported the measure.
Supporters of the bill contended that Mexico conducts no background checks on people applying for the identification cards, making it unreliable. Deluera insisted the identification was "very reliable" and that "the claim by some that people can obtain the card in a very easy way is untrue."
(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
