Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, left, Senate Minority Leader Luz Escamilla, D-Salt Lake City, and other members of Senate leadership talk to journalists at the Capitol in Salt Lake City on the first day of the legislative session, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
One of the Legislature’s flagship immigration bills that would have made it easier to deport people living in Utah without legal authorization who commit a misdemeanor offense was shot down Tuesday evening.
Sponsored by Rep. Candice Pierucci, R-Herriman, HB226 was touted before the legislative session started as an answer to the national immigration debate, as Utah lawmakers and law enforcement look to deport more people who commit crimes while increasing coordination with the federal government.
It would increase the maximum penalty for violent, class A misdemeanors from 364 days to 365 days — if an immigrant is convicted of a crime and serves a one-year sentence, it automatically initiates deportation proceedings. Her bill also applied to people charged with DUI.
Lawmakers in 2019 sought to shield immigrants from deportations tied to misdemeanors, passing a law that year that lowered the maximum penalty to 364 days. But with an increase in crossings along the southern border and more noncitizens arriving in Pierucci’s district, she said it’s time to repeal the 2019 law.
HB226 was watered down as it moved through the legislature, with an amendment that focused on violent crimes like assault, stalking or reckless endangerment, rather than all class A misdemeanors. That won support of a few Democrats, and the bill passed the House after a bipartisan 62-9 vote.
“This is something that a lot of us have heard from our constituents recently,” Pierucci said on Tuesday. Pointing to a December Deseret News poll, she said Utahns support deporting immigrants who have committed violent crimes.
But during a Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement, and Criminal Justice Committee meeting Tuesday evening, Sens. Mike McKell, R-Spanish Fork, and Calvin Musselman, R-West Haven, joined Democrats in voting “no,” preventing the bill from advancing to the Senate floor.
“Parts of this give me pause,” said Musselman before he cast his “no” vote, pointing to a provision where immigrants with legal status — which includes people with green cards or other visas — could still be deported if they are convicted of a class A misdemeanor.
“Is that completely necessary for that to be in the bill?” he asked.
In response, Pierucci said her bill aligns state code with federal law, allowing for greater collaboration with the Trump administration while still taking a more gentle approach than Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.
“President Trump has made executive orders and is moving things with Homeland Security and ICE that go far beyond the provisions in this bill,” she said.
Senate leaders on Wednesday said Pierucci’s bill isn’t dead.
“We’re going to work on the things we didn’t like, and we’re trying to fix those and bring the bill back,” Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, told reporters during a media availability.
McKell said he prefers the approach taken by Musselman, who is sponsoring a bill that requires a judge to impose a mandatory jail or prison sentence for crimes committed by a person who has already been deported, then charged with felony reentry to the U.S.
He expressed concern over language in Pierucci’s bill that simply mirrors federal law, but expects to see it revived before the session ends on March 7.
The Senate’s top Democrat, Luz Escamilla, said the bill is too ambiguous with how it approaches all immigrants living in the state — she worries refugees, visa holders, people with valid parole or asylum claims and more would be unnecessarily targeted.
“You will not even allow them to have due process,” she said on Wednesday. “There’s still some drafting concerns. And I don’t know how you clean that. So it’s a very complicated bill, and had many factors in it.”
In addition to the increased sentence for violent class A misdemeanors, Pierucci’s bill would require local law enforcement to hand over immigrants to ICE after they finish their one-year sentence. It also directs judges to consider immigrants living in the country illegally to be considered a flight risk.
And, it seeks to impose civil penalties on nonprofits that transport immigrants without legal status into Utah.
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