Lawmakers voted down a bill Monday that would have required employers to screen workers using a federal background check system amid concerns it would add another burden to business owners.

The Senate State Affairs Committee defeated the measure on 7-2 vote. The bill was aimed at stemming the flow of illegal immigrants into the state, and would have put employers who accepted false identification at risk of losing their business licenses.

A graduate student told University of Nebraska regents Friday that it isn't fair for him to have to pay out-of-state tuition while children of illegal immigrants pay in-state rates.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Some businesses would have to confirm the immigration status of employees under a bill passed by the Utah Senate but would no longer face criminal penalties if they didn't.

An original version of the measure included the penalties but bill sponsor Sen. Chris Buttars removed it, saying businesses had complained.

An evaluation of the E-Verify program conducted about two years ago has just been released. (The 338-page pdf is here.) It estimates, among other things, that about half of illegal aliens who were screened between April and June 2008 managed to foil the system and get approved for employment, and opponents of immigration enforcement are tickled pink. Chuck Schumer, who is taking the lead on amnesty, said, "This is a wake-up call to anyone who thinks E-Verify is an effective remedy to stop the hiring of illegal immigrants." Likewise, former Kennedy staffer Marc Rosenblum said, "Clearly it means it's not doing its No. 1 job well enough."

A House panel has approved a bill that would require schools to annually report how many illegal immigrants are enrolled and how much it costs to educate them.

University of Idaho employees will be required to prove their eligibility to work in the United States, citing requirements stemming from federal funding.

Employees will participate in E-Verify sessions, putting forth documentation confirming they are legal to work in the United States. Once in the system, Social Security, the Department of Homeland Security and the federal government verify the information. "Because we receive a lot of federal contracts, it got to the point where if we weren't going to comply we may very well risk losing all the contracts," said Lucy Aragon, human resources assistant.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's latest proposals to close California's budget shortfall would end public assistance for most new legal immigrants, eliminating emergency cash, food and medical aid for those who don't yet qualify for federal welfare.

The proposal would represent an about-face for the state. In 1996, Congress denied access to welfare for most legal immigrants who weren't citizens. California and other states established programs to fill the gap.

Federal immigration authorities had alerted Gebbers Farms that a number of its employees' hiring forms were suspect. Unless those employees could prove they were in this country legally, the company would let them go.

Many couldn't. Like the vast majority of America's agricultural work force, they were illegal immigrants who used fake documents to get jobs picking and packing fruit, in this case in and around this small town on the Columbia River north of Wenatchee.

Five days later, the company dismissed an estimated 550 workers — equal to about a quarter of Brewster's population. It was the biggest firing of its kind ever seen in Washington. And former workers say the letters and firings are still coming.

A report that America's illegal immigrant population declined by almost 1 million in one year is fomenting hot debate about why it is happening, whether the statistics are correct, and how the numbers should affect US immigration reform.

The number of illegal immigrants living in the United States dropped to 10.6 million in 2009 from 11.6 million in 2008, the sharpest decrease in 30 years and a second straight year of decline, according to a Department of Homeland Security report released this week.

Some immigration-control groups say the decline is happening primarily because of a buildup of border patrol and surveillance and that the buildup should thus continue to further reduce illegal immigration. Other groups claim it is a result of the poor economy. Some say it is both, and still others doubt the statistics altogether.

A bill that would repeal in-state tuition for children of undocumented immigrants is making its sixth legislative appearance in seven years. But this time, proponents will argue that budget cuts and possible enrollment caps means there might not be enough room for citizens, let alone students who aren't documented.

Rep. Richard Greenwood, R-Roy, is planning to run a bill that would repeal a 2002 state law that grants in-state tuition to undocumented immigrants' children who graduate from a Utah high school.