Students show support of Senate Bill 288 with demonstration
Student protesters marched across campus Thursday afternoon and urged Utah State students to come together and support SB 288, an immigration bill aimed at ultimately providing citizenship and documentation to illegal immigrants.
The group marched with banners and chants such as, “SB 228. Let’s all work to educate,” from 12:30-2 p.m., and they offered students the chance to sign a petition in support of the bill that will be sent to Utah legislatures.
Justin Hinh, who organized the march, said, “This is a comprehensive bill that would allow immigrants to leave the shadows of society.” Supporting it, he said, is “the moral and right thing to do.”
The bill, known as The Utah Compact Act, is a compromise being considered by the Utah legislature in wake of the senate vote Wednesday that killed HB 70, a bill that would allow officers to justify documentation searches under “reasonable suspicion” of illegality. Similar bills proposed nationwide have been criticized for appearing to endorse racial profiling.
SB 288, Hinh said, would create a guest worker program in which undocumented workers could pay and apply for guest worker permits. That would in turn give undocumented workers the opportunity to become documented and eventually apply for green cards.
“The bill would remove the term ‘reasonable suspicion’ while still allowing officers to ask for documentation if a person failed to show their driver’s license, with the later threat of possible deportation or detainment if found to be undocumented.
The student protest group supported this measure with the request that enforcement begin in 2013, giving immigrants the chance to get documentation before then. Students at Utah State University would then have the opportunity to pay in-state tuition and attain a college education.
Protestor Stefanie Monreal said one good thing that could come from the protest would be “awareness around campus, and the city, too.”
With the petitions, the group hopes to let Utah’s legislators know that Utah State students support SB 288 and a direct pathway to citizenship.
“Every kid has a dream,” Monreal said. “When I was in high school, I had a dream. There are millions of kids who feel like me with a dream and a hope in the future.”
This bill, she said, could fulfill those dreams.”
– ariwrees@aggiemail.usu.edu