H.B. 588 Murdered and Missing Indigenous Relatives Amendments: transcript

That's my name. Thank you. Um, this is a pretty simple bill. It's based off of the report when we used to have the murdered and missing indigenous, um, people and relatives task force. And all this bill is calling for is for, um, the Office of American Indian, Alaska Native American Health and Family Services to create a curriculum for training related to investigating of, uh, murders or disappearance of indi indigenous individuals. And this was something that, um, was suggested at the report we did as a legislature a few years back. And that's the bill.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that we favorably recommend HB 5 88.

Uh, this is a super important issue that we obviously still have a lot of work to do.

I'm just excited about this. Not excited about the issue, but, um, we've passed several pieces of legislation, this slide, last legislative session with Representative Malloy's bill that we're gonna be able to track information. And so this will go into this curriculum that the office will be developing.

Thank you Mr. Speaker. This bill basically requires the Office of American Indian, Alaska Native Health and Family Services to create a curriculum for training related to the investigation of murdered and or disappearances of indigenous individuals. And this bill comes out of the report that this body sponsored in 2023. And, um, we'll be working with different invested partners such as our tribal communities and law enforcement. Thank you Representative Romero.

Thank you Mr. Speaker colleagues. I rise in strong support of this bill. This bill is unique to Utah as we have eight federally recognized tribes in our state. It's also important because of the uniqueness in the 2020 report that my good colleague talked about. When the results were published in 2023, there were specific items that they state showed that Utah is different than other states. Investigations that involve individuals who have, uh, uh, indigenous ancestry are different than, uh, other investigations for a number of reasons for information sharing, jurisdictional challenges, interagency collaboration and cultural competency and college. I just want share one example. There's a, a woman in by the name of Irma Lynndyl Garza. In 1991, she was shot and killed and left on the side of the road in the desert south of St. George. She was an individual who was of indigenous ancestry. And imagine if put yourself in the shoes of a rural detective or a rural officer where resources are already limited and now you're facing an investigation where you might have to collaborate with the FBI, with the city police, tribal police, and possibly another state's law enforcement agency and their state police. This is why this bill is so needed to offer training, particularly in rural Utah, where these cases would be more frequent. And unfortunately, Ms. Uh, Ms. Garza's case was never solved. This bill can ensure that these cases don't happen anymore in Utah, that we can bring justice. And I'll just close by, by just sharing that either everyone matters or no one matters in our criminal justice system. This bill brings us one step closer to justice for every victim. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you Mr. Speaker. This is something I've been working on for many, many years and many of you have supported and I hope to earn your support again. Thank you.