Federal Immigration Crackdown Bolsters Local Efforts

None by KCPW

(KCPW News) A new White House crackdown on illegal immigration calls for more border security agents, tighter enforcement of laws to prohibit hiring illegal workers and more immigration enforcement training for state and local police officers.

"We have plenty of laws on the books, we just need to enforce them and not overlook them," says State Representative Glenn Donnelson.

Donnelson says the President's new commitment to immigration enforcement only bolsters his own resolve to pass stricter laws in Utah. He has made a name for himself at the State Capitol in recent years with measures to repeal driving privileges and in-state tuition benefits and to require companies to more thoroughly verify an employee's citizenship status.

Donnelson says the federal enforcement plan won't work without similar state laws in place.

"We have a federal law, but not enough federal people to enforce it," says Donnelson. "So states have to pass equal legislation so the states can enforce that. Eventhough it's a federal law, it now becomes a state law that we have to enforce."

The President plans to hire more immigration agents, but Donnelson says that still won't be enough, and he plans to make another attempt at a bill that requires local police agencies to train their officers as immigration enforcement agencies. That measure failed last year, along with Donnelson's other efforts to repeal driving privilege cards and in-state tuition benefits. He hopes the federal immigration enforcement effort will inspire support for those proposals this year in Utah.

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