Misrepresented by Amy Novoa, Amber Smith, Diana Ortega, Brianna Lewis and Gaby Rodriguez

We are interns with Mestizo’s Arts and Activism. As interns, we lobby, blog and interview community members to raise awareness on legislative and community issues. We spent the last two months at the Utah Capital and during the legislative session of 2011, we felt that we were misrepresented. As students, mostly women, of different backgrounds: Latina, Peruvian, Salvadorian, Caucasian; we felt like outsiders. We heard negative comments directed to us like, “well there’s some interesting people,” from Eagle Forum lobbyists.

Representatives Paul Ray and Stephen Sandstrom and Senator Margaret Dayton never came off the floor to speak with us, although we tried multiple times. These representatives sponsored anti-affirmative action resolutions, hard line immigrant deportation proposals, and a resolution to urge the US Congress to repeal the 14th amendment right for children born in the US to be US citizens. Whereas, a representative like Rebecca Chavez Houck, who voted no for a strict Freedom of Consciousness Provider anti-abortion bill, came out to speak with us, and openly answered our questions.

We saw a total of 502 bills pass the entire legislative process. And now, it is up to Governor Herbert to make them official laws. Many of these bills will change the lives of Utah residents, for good or bad. Here are some that we think will affect our communities most. Our first concern is bill HB497, Illegal Immigration Enforcement Act. This bill lets officers ask for verification of immigration status of a person detained for a class C misdemeanor or higher. We think this catch and release enforcement style will lead to racial profiling in our communities.

A law that will positively affect our community is HB 64; it will lower the blood donation age requirement to sixteen. Bill H.B. 64 increases the blood supply (ten to twenty percent) and establishes a lifelong habit of blood donating for Utah's youth. The law may also increase Utah teens' sense of community and purpose. Blood donations save thousands of Utahans lives; we are excited for this bill to contribute to the heath and well being of our community.

We are dissatisfied with the education budget passed for 2012, 96% of what it was last year, dropping millions of dollars from the education system. These cuts will lower the quality of education in Utah. As 1500 new students enter the school system this upcoming year, they will cost the school system 50 million dollars, which Utah cannot afford. With all of these costs, plus the cost of supplies and programs, the school system needs funds to be raised, not cut to support our youth’s education.

Utah has also become the first state in the country with it’s own guest worker program, allowing permits to undocumented immigrants to live and work in the state legally. H.B. 116, the guest worker program act, in theory, could be very beneficial to Utah’s 100,000 undocumented persons; but many flaws lie within it.

The measure passed the state legislature as part of a bipartisan deal that also included enforcement laws, similar to HB 497, that require police to check the immigration status of suspects in felony or serious misdemeanor cases. This type of guest worker program does not provide a path to citizenship or any other type of residency. Under this bill, workers who apply for a permit must already be living in the state, pass a background check, and pay a substantial fee. In any case, H.B. 116 relies on the federal government granting the state a waiver to operate this type of program. There is no mechanism within the federal government for such a waiver to be granted, making the program unconstitutional.

Lastly, we are concerned with the lack of representation of minorities in the legislative session. We asked ourselves why minorities don’t get involved, or educate themselves about the laws that are going to affect their lives. Our team unanimously agrees that the majority of elected officials underrepresent our communities, making minority members feel unwelcome in the capital. It feels like; the capitol is a building of power and privilege where our communities are unwanted. We feel some representatives’ work to serve themselves and not Utah community members. Some represent their ideology rather than their constituents. We believe all our representatives should be more involved on our communities, work with the people, and not discriminate against our heritage, age or gender. We want to thank Rebecca Chavez, Mark Alvaraz, Gina Cornia, David Litvack, Jennifer Seelig, and Matt Bradley for making us feel welcomed, wanted, and included in the legislative process.