BOISE - State Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Eagle, the sole Latino legislator and an immigration lawyer, told his colleagues Thursday how he won a case for a client who came to America when she was 8 years-old but who had learned 37 years later that she was not a legal citizen.

"She was shocked," Labrador said. "She had thought all her life that she was a legal citizen."

This was one of several personal examples he cited during a nearly 20-minute plea on the House floor to vote against a bill to withhold publicly-funded social benefits to undocumented Idahoans.

The House voted 47-21 to send it to the governor to sign.

Labrador echoed sentiment expressed by Sen. Chuck Coiner, R-Twin Falls, who gave a passionate argument in the Senate, which voted 29-6 in favor.

The bill would require individuals who want to use public social programs, such as Medicare, Medicaid and other services, to show documents proving citizenship, including a driver's license or a passport as well as authentic social security numbers.

It would apply only to those over 18.

Labrador criticized the legislation for not providing how much money Idaho is losing to illegal citizens or how many people are committing fraud.

"I am talking today versus substance versus symbols," Labrador said. "I'm afraid we're sending the wrong signals as a state."

A spokesman for the state Department of Health and Welfare, which administers–the social programs, said Thursday that such figures are still unknown and the bill is unlikely to affect the agency. It could affect branched groups, however, such as South Central District Health in Twin Falls.

"We either meet or exceed all of the requirements for the check of identification the bill proposes," said department spokesman Tom Shanahan.

Others argued the bill would be costly and ineffective.

They referenced the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, a database that verifies legal status with social security numbers; recent legislative approval of full-time positions to help administer the program, and that the Senate killed a bill to keep employers unaccountable who hire illegal immigrants.

But proponents said the bill was a responsible taxpayer policy, and does not single out Mexicans. Thirty states have passed similar measures.

Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter supported the measure in his January State of the State address.

"We don't know how many people would be affected," said Rep. Phil Hart, R-Athol, "because we don't know how many people are here illegally because we don't' track it."

Statehouse reporter Jared S. Hopkins can be reached at 343-0901 or jhopkins@magicvalley.com.

For Scott Bedke, R-Oakley Maxine Bell, R-Jerome Sharon Block, R-Twin Falls Leon Smith, R-Twin Falls Fred Wood, R-Burley Jim Patrick, R-Twin Falls Bert Brackett, R-Rogerson Against Wendy Jaquet, D-Ketchum Donna Pence, D-Gooding Absent Bert Stevenson, R-Rupert