SALT LAKE CITY -- A state senator is pledging to pursue illegal immigrants with new legislation that would cut off public benefits, deny in-state college tuition rates and give police more freedom to work with federal authorities.

Sen. Bill Hickman, R-St. George, said he also wants Utah to copy an Oklahoma law that prohibits transporting illegal immigrants.

Utah is the only state that issues a driving card to illegal immigrants, which allows them to buy insurance and travel freely throughout the state. It cannot be used to buy guns or board an airplane.

Hispanic advocates say Hickman's proposal will push illegal immigrants underground and render Utah's driving card, used by 34,000 people, useless.

"Does this mean I have to start asking my own friends their legal status in case I get pulledfi" said Tony Yapias, former director of the State Office of Hispanic Affairs.

"All the sudden I'm facing charges because I failed to ask a friend his legal status. I think this is going beyond the issue of immigration. This is going straight into pure and simple racism," he said.

Utah's driving card was intended to end voter fraud among illegal immigrants who were receiving regular licenses. The law was sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Curt Bramble, R-Provo.

Bramble said the cards have worked as intended and are not an incentive for illegal immigrants to flock to Utah.

"The driver license has become a de facto document showing validation in our community. Those have all been eliminated," he said.

"Utah is not giving them anything that they're not already taking. ... It provides a mechanism to give them driving records and insurance," Bramble said of the driving card. "It doesn't prohibit police from enforcing immigration laws."

A 2006 audit showed that 75 percent of people with driver cards had insurance after they were first issued in 2005. That's compared to about 85 percent of Utah drivers who had a regular driver's license.

While Hickman's bill isn't in final form, Bramble said he's seen the highlights and is generally supportive.

Children of illegal immigrants wouldn't get the in-state rate on college tuition. Police, under Hickman's plan, could work with the Department of Homeland Security in identifying illegal immigrants who have been arrested.

Bramble is one of Utah's loudest voices when it comes criticizing federal immigration policy -- a "dismal, abject failure."

Bramble said he doesn't want to repeal the driver card but would be willing if the House goes along.

Hickman said he wants to end large-scale trafficking of illegal immigrants in Utah. But he acknowledged that anyone driving a vehicle with an illegal immigrant would be in hot water, if Utah approves a policy like Oklahoma's.

Trips to the grocery store, doctor's office or school would be illegal if an illegal immigrant were present.

"It would please me mightily," said Eli Cawley, chairman of the Utah Minuteman Project, which wants a crackdown on illegal immigration. "But those kind of things rely on the enforcement and identification of illegal aliens. To date, because Utah is a sanctuary state, police never ask someone if they're an illegal alien unless they committed an infraction of the law."

Yapias, too, is frustrated with federal immigration policy but doesn't see Hickman's bill as the solution.

"I will work with him. Let's have a real debate at the national level. That's where the pressure would need to be," he said. "Enough going after these defenseless people who have nothing to do with this issue."

But for Hickman, there's little room for debate over illegal immigration.

"We are creating two distinct segments of our society: Those of us who are citizens who live here and respect the law, and those who come here illegally who have no reason to obey the law," he said.