Utah county requires disabled vets to prove U.S. citizenship

From the Salt Lake Tribune in Utah:

They slogged through the rice paddies of Vietnam. They rumbled amid roadside bombs in Iraq. They took bullets in Afghanistan.

Now these disabled military veterans, thousands of them, are being asked to prove they are Americans -- if they want to remain -- on Salt Lake County's tax-relief rolls.
That's the head-scratching side effect of a stricter immigration law, know as SB81, passed by the Utah Legislature in 2008 that requires governments to verify that those receiving a "public benefit" are living in the country legally.

Disabled military veterans aren't exempt from that law, according to Salt Lake County.

So the Treasurer's Office sent notices early this year to more than 3,500 wounded or ill veterans requiring them to attest to their U.S. citizenship or provide paperwork proving their legal status to qualify for a property-tax break.

"These guys have gone through enough in their lives," said Terry Schow, executive director of the Utah Department of Veteran Affairs. "Don't place an extra burden on disabled veterans by requiring them to jump through these hoops."

Schow knows of no other Utah counties taking this tack with SB81.

But County Treasurer Larry Richardson argues he simply followed the law. The Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office advised him that property-tax relief -- even for disabled vets -- is a public benefit.

"If there is something I'm supposed to do to comply with the law, I'm going to do it," he said. "That is what I call integrity."

Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab, calls it a gross misinterpretation of SB81, which he co-sponsored almost two years ago. The intent, he says, was to ensure that undocumented immigrants aren't accessing public benefits such as food stamps, not to pile paperwork on veterans.

"That is absolutely appalling," Noel said. "What in the world were they thinking?"

The trouble is, the law leaves room for interpretation.

"It was clear that those receiving benefits needed to prove residency," District Attorney Lohra Miller told the County Council this week. "As ridiculous as the result might be, that was the intent. It was not ambiguous."

So veterans such as Johnnie Janes, who battles cancer because of his exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam, has to verify under threat of perjury that, yes, he's an American.

Janes refused to fill out the paperwork.

"I immediately took offense to it," said Janes, who heads the state's Veterans Advisory Council. "Having volunteered to serve in the armed forces, I felt there was no reason to verify that I was a legal alien."

Although Janes worries that the county will withhold his tax break, Richardson said Wednesday he has no plans -- at least this time around -- to revoke benefits from those who didn't verify their legal status.

Salt Lake County Council Chairman Joe Hatch characterized the $3,300 mass mailing as an "enormous waste of government dollars" that placed an undue burden on veterans.

But what's done is done. Richardson said the only disabled vets who will have to respond to the question about living in the United States in the future are those applying for benefits for the first time.

So far, officials have found no disabled vets in Salt Lake County who are in the United States unlawfully. It's hardly a surprising outcome, given that the military doesn't recruit people who aren't citizens or legal residents.