Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Standing Committee members met Monday morning to discuss a substituted version of the “Unlawful Presence Criminal Enhancement Amendments.”
Per the bill’s original general description, “this bill enhances criminal penalties for a crime committed by an individual who is unlawfully present in the United States.” In the new version, the title changed to “Mandatory Jail Sentence Amendments,” and now “requires a mandatory jail sentence for certain crimes committed under certain conditions.”
The bill is one of several targeting immigration, including another related to increased sentencing for Class A misdemeanors.
Original Bill
Initially, SB90, introduced by Sen. Calvin R. Musselman (R-District 4), would sentence individuals found unlawfully present in the U.S. and guilty of any separate crime as if the crime committed was one degree more serious. For instance, an individual convicted of a Class C misdemeanor and additionally found to be unlawfully present in the U.S. would instead be found guilty of a Class B misdemeanor.
The bill also jumped from misdemeanor to felony, changing a Class A misdemeanor conviction to a third-degree felony. The bill proposed mandatory fines for all convictions and mandatory jail time for all felonies. Early critics of the bill claimed it would effectively create a separate legal code for all undocumented immigrants.
Substitution No. 3
Sen. Musselman said this bill targets a “very specific subset of people” and introduced several major substitutions to narrow its scope.
Substitute No. 3 of SB90 now specifies sentencing minimums only for some drug and theft crimes if “the person previously has been convicted of reentry of a removed alien under 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1326.”
The bill also prevents the release of the convicted to ICE until the full length of the sentence has been served. Musselman clarified that the bill does not provide any enhanced sentencing minimums for violent crimes as those crimes already have jail time requirements.
“[For those] clearly connected to organized crime, there’s a mandatory jail sentence. It’ll stop that revolving door,” Musselman said.
“Revolving door” immigration refers to a process in which recently deported individuals reenter the U.S., often due to increased violence or poverty in their home countries.
Sen. Musselman said that mandatory jail time served in Utah rather than automatic deportation would delay the rate at which deportees can unlawfully reenter the U.S.
Public Comments
Four members of the public provided comments on the bill. Director of the Victim Services Commission Marlesse Jones briefly stated her department’s support for it, and resident Hyrum Gonzalez also spoke in favor of it. He said Substitute No. 3 of the bill now targets the specific group of people capable of harming the community.
Two spoke against SB90, and one community member said, “I do think this bill’s targeting people who are harmful to the community. I also think this is targeting immigrants and is a way to show that immigrants have a lower status than the rest of us. I don’t think it’s right to punish them further. I think everyone needs to have the same level of punishment.”
Liz Maryon of the Salt Lake Community Bail Fund also spoke in opposition.
“Being undocumented is not a federal crime,” she said, and opposed the use of unlawful status as a basis for increased sentencing.
Following public remarks, Sen. Musselman moved to favorably recommend Substitution No. 3, which passed 4-2. The two opposition votes came from Committee Chair Todd Weiler, who opposed sentencing minimums on principle, and Sen. Heidi Balderree.
