Utah, as Gov. Spencer Cox promised, is laying the groundwork to take on crime and illegal immigration. Other GOP-led states are getting ready too. State Republican lawmakers announced a slate of legislation on Jan. 6 ahead of the 2025 session.
The bills focus on everything from cracking down on the fentanyl trade and organized crime to increasing penalties for people who drive without a license.
“It's part of our culture to welcome people who come here to search for a better life, to work hard, obey the law and to be part of our community,” said House Majority Whip Rep. Karianne Lisonbee at a Capitol Hill news conference. “However, the chaos at the southern border has put serious strains on our communities, public safety, resources, education system and more.”
Illegal immigration and crime were central issues during the 2024 election and Utah leaders have said they will support President-elect Donald Trump’s efforts to clamp down on both. Lisonbee was joined by several other Republicans and Commissioner of the Utah Department of Public Safety Jess Anderson to announce the bills.
Anderson said his department has increased their efforts to target the illicit drug trade, adding Utah law enforcement “frequently encounter drug dealers from Mexico and Honduras who have been deported multiple times.”
“These individuals reportedly pay, on average, $15,000 to be smuggled across the border and re-enter the United States illegally,“ he said. “So to say that illegal immigration isn't an issue here in Utah is simply false.”
If all of the proposed legislation were to pass, stiffer penalties would be in place for fentanyl trafficking, organized crime, repeat offenders, human trafficking and unlicensed drivers — including deportations for undocumented people who commit serious crimes.
Lisonbee stressed the state is committed to supporting legal paths of immigration into the United States and Utah, but “cannot and will not turn a blind eye to the impacts that the recent surge of illegal immigration is having on our state businesses and citizens.”
Rep. Candice Pierucci will sponsor a bill to increase punishments for human trafficking. Despite the focus on drugs and crime moving across the southern border, she said the bills are not just about people who are in the country illegally.
“None of our bills are actually targeting a status,” she noted. “They're all focusing on crime. So I feel like we've really tried to thread the needle on this, but I think we've really tried hard to focus on the criminal element here.”
Bill language is expected to be made public in the coming weeks.
Today we held a press conference announcing our package of bills to address issues related to the Southern border crisis, crime, and illegal immigration in our state.
— Candice B. Pierucci (@CandicePierucci) January 6, 2025
It is critical that we are cracking down on crime, and working hand-in-hand with President Trump’s… pic.twitter.com/msggonzCLr
While Democratic House Minority Leader Angela Romero supports a tougher stance on crime, she expressed concerns over conflating public safety with immigration.
“There were some people talking about crime and then there were some people talking about immigration, and I think the two don't go hand in hand,” she said. “There are some things that cross over, but there were some things that were mentioned here that have nothing to do with people who are immigrating here to Utah.”
Romero is worried that the language used around immigration and public safety will create a climate of fear in Utah’s Latino communities. She pointed to statistics that show the rates of undocumented people committing crimes are lower than those for people born in the United States.
“The concern is the rhetoric that goes around this, and the concern is how people interpret immigration and when we talk about it through only a public safety lens and how it criminalizes a lot of people who are just trying to live.”
Pierrucci said House Republicans have not had discussions related to cracking down on people whose only crime has been entering the country illegally.
“In all the bills discussed, we're talking about someone who's come here and then committed an additional crime,” she said. “That's what these bills are targeting.”
