Thread: Among Mormons, a deep divide on immigration

Among Mormons, a deep divide on immigration

Two leading Utah activists embody opposite views on the issue – and both cite the church's teachings as the core of their positions.

By Nicholas Riccardi, Los Angeles Times
December 31, 2010, 7:04 p.m.

Reporting from Salt Lake City — At the Sandstrom family table on the edge of the Wasatch Mountains, eldest son Stephen listened carefully as his parents talked about politics, the divine nature of the nation's founding and the importance of the rule of law.

Sandstrom held fast to those tenets of his Mormon faith years later as a state representative. They led him to write a bill modeled on a controversial Arizona law that would require police to determine the immigration status of people they lawfully stop and also suspect are in the country illegally.

"This country is the greatest nation on Earth because God had a hand in its formation," said Sandstrom, 47. "A lot of that is because … we obey the rule of law. Turning a blind eye to illegal immigration jeopardizes the rule of law."

At the Yapias family table in Peru, eldest son Tony felt the strain of a family divided. His father labored seven years in the United States as a sheepherder in Idaho before the family won permission to join him when Tony was 14. The separation ultimately destroyed his parents' marriage.

When he became an adult, Yapias joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, drawn by the religion's emphasis on family. The intersection of the church and his childhood led the 44-year-old to a very different position on illegal immigration than Sandstrom's.

"Every immigrant understands the pain and suffering of any family that's separated," Yapias said. "When Sandstrom or anyone else starts talking, it just opens up wounds.... What I don't understand is how Sandstrom doesn't get it — how two people of the same faith can be so far apart."

Stephen Sandstrom and Tony Yapias embody the conflicting viewpoints on illegal immigration among church members — and both sides cite core LDS principles.

Illegal immigration has been a combustible issue across the country this year, but in normally tranquil Utah it has roiled the state's politics and highlighted a deep divide among Mormons.

Sandstrom's news conference announcing his bill was disrupted by angry immigrants' rights activists. Both sides have staged protests. This summer a list of purportedly illegal immigrants was anonymously circulated — complete with birth dates and, in some cases, noting pregnancies. Two state workers were blamed and fired.

Finally, in November, the Mormon Church stepped into the fray, carefully lending its weight to Yapias' position. It endorsed a set of principles issued by Utah business leaders who oppose Sandstrom's legislation, and issued a statement calling for immigration policy to be made not just with an eye toward the rule of law, but also compassion and family unity.

Church officials said they spoke out because they saw the two wings hardening their positions. "We wanted to moderate the debate," church spokesman Mike Purdy said.

That wasn't enough for some Latino leaders, who complain that the church, unlike many Catholic, Jewish, Islamic and evangelical groups, has been too timid in defending illegal immigrants even as Latinos join the faith in increasing numbers.

Meanwhile, some immigration hard-liners sympathetic to Sandstrom have talked about cutting their donations to the church, charging that religious leaders are pandering to Latinos.

"The church's biggest problem is that it's trying to straddle the fence," said Archie Archuleta, a veteran Latino activist here who is not an LDS member. "They've expended so much energy proselytizing in Latin America. But we live in a red state that is tremendously conservative.... The principles of politics and morality and religion are really in conflict here."

Tall, lean and serious-looking in his dark suit, Sandstrom fits many people's stereotype of a dutiful Mormon. The oldest of five, he grew up in hyperconservative Provo, home to Brigham Young University, and became an avid hunter and mountaineer. His mother served two terms on the City Council and his father, an architect, was active in Republican politics.

After he earned his degree in political science, the church sent him on a mission to Venezuela, where proselytizing took him from the highest reaches of Caracas society to impoverished villages on the Caribbean coast. It was in those small towns that Sandstrom's worldview changed.

"I had always thought that everyone who lives in one of those countries must be miserable," he said. Instead, Sandstrom said he found the people in those towns — living in tin-roof shacks and laboring for a few dollars a day — "were very hardworking and very happy with their lives."

Sandstrom became fluent in Spanish and sponsored one family that wanted to immigrate to the United States. He was shocked at the hurdles they had to surmount. They had to sign a form pledging to refuse all U.S. government benefits for five years. Sandstrom thought of the people here illegally who accessed those benefits. It didn't sit right with him.

He later took over the family architectural business and found many contractors complaining that illegal immigrants were driving down wages.

Sandstrom entered politics as a city councilman in the Provo suburb of Orem. In his second term, the tidy suburb had an unheard-of four homicides — three committed by illegal immigrants. In 2007 he decided to run for the statehouse, and made illegal immigration his signature issue.

The day after Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed the immigration law SB 1070 this spring, Sandstrom announced he would introduce a version here.

One of his chief complaints is that predominantly Mexican illegal immigrants crowd out other, legal immigrants — people like the Venezuelans, Peruvians and other Latin Americans whom he meets on regular return trips to South America and whom he believes are not allowed to legally immigrate because there are too many illegal immigrants here already. "This is not anti-Hispanic in any form," Sandstrom said.

But unlike in Arizona, where a united Republican Party easily carried SB 1070 through the Legislature, there has been stiff resistance in Utah.

Although extremely conservative, Utah boasts some of the most illegal-immigrant-friendly laws in the nation, a condition long attributed to the Mormon Church's calming influence. In addition to charging illegal immigrant students in-state tuition at state universities, Utah gives them "driving privilege cards" which function like driver's licenses.

"They feel safe here because we let them operate with impunity," Sandstrom said of illegal immigrants.

Last month, a coalition of prominent business leaders and conservative intellectuals released the Utah Compact, which maps out principles for immigration reform that are in stark opposition to Sandstrom's bill.

After the compact was unveiled, the church endorsed, but did not sign, the document and issued a separate statement on immigration that echoed its principles.

Many Sandstrom supporters were outraged. One of the church's 13 articles of faith is "obeying, honoring and sustaining the law." It is why, despite the church's strong opposition to abortion, LDS members do not engage in civil disobedience at abortion clinics. The principle is so strong that church leaders have advised members in communist countries to obey the law, even if it is anathema to their other beliefs.

"There's a lot of people out there, the older generation of Mormons, who are scratching their heads about what's going on now," said Ronald Mortensen, a retired diplomat active in the campaign against illegal immigration in Utah. "From the time we're kids, you memorize the articles of faith. You tend to see the law and the rule of law as something you don't play with."

The church statement cited the rule of law but also, significantly, emphasized compassion and the value of keeping families united.

However, the language in the statement was deliberately general because, officials said, they did not want to dictate the specifics of public policy. "It's not our job to say how high or thick a fence should be, or how many people should be let in," spokesman Michael Otterson said.

For Yapias, the Mormon Church has often been about family. When he and his brothers, sisters and mother immigrated to the United States in 1980, they joined his father in the heavily Mormon town of Evanston, Idaho.

Yapias, who was raised Catholic, did not speak English when he arrived but found a welcoming atmosphere in Evanston. By his sophomore year in high school, he decided to run for student government. He lost, but won the presidency of the student body the following year.

After graduation, he went to Washington as an intern for Wyoming's then-Sen. Alan Simpson, a Republican who cosponsored the 1986 law that legalized 2 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S.

After returning, Yapias enrolled in BYU and joined the church. By that time, his mother had returned to Peru, and Yapias was eager to embrace a faith that put a premium on building families. Friends also assured him that he was part of God's plan — a reference to a Mormon belief that some Latinos and Native Americans may be descendants of an ancient prophet, destined to be welcomed into the church.

Yapias married and helped raise five children. He worked as a probation officer. In 2003, he was appointed director of the Office of Hispanic Affairs for the state. Two years later, he was diagnosed with thyroid cancer.

"It gave me a different outlook on life," Yapias said. "You start thinking you might not be here that long." He became a full-time activist, working odd hours as a translator to pay the bills.

Yapias spends much of his day fielding calls from desperate illegal immigrants. "Tony," they tell him, "my mother in Mexico is sick. What can I do?" Current immigration law, he says, creates millions of tragedies.

Yapias put his head in his hands. "What it does to our families is just devastating," he said.

Yapias has debated Sandstrom in public forums several times, and said he personally liked the politician. But he said that Sandstrom was on the wrong side of history.

"I believe that Sandstrom's children and grandchildren will apologize to us someday," Yapias said.

nicholas.riccardi@latimes.com

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld ... full.story

I'm always suprised when we can't put our own people first in a time of crisis. Of course we should share - when we have resources to spare. With 25 million Americans unemployed or involuntarily underemployed (and with foreclusures rising in Utah) we're all caught up in a zero sum game. It's jobs and help for Americans or jobs and help for illegals.
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Americans first in this magnificent country

American jobs for American workers

Fair trade, not free trade

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

"I had always thought that everyone who lives in one of those countries must be miserable," he said. Instead, Sandstrom said he found the people in those towns — living in tin-roof shacks and laboring for a few dollars a day — "were very hardworking and very happy with their lives."

"So what's the problem then?"

Tony Yapass is about the biggest idiot in the state of Utah without exception. He thinks he and his people are entitled to free everything from health care to education. If anyone is on the wrong side it is YOU Tony. The church membership is far from split on the issue, they are overwhelmingly tired of the Mexican invasion in Utah. The church leadership is between a rock and a hard place because they teach obeying the law as a fundamental tenet and turn right around and tell everyone to look the other way on the illegal issue, most of its members don't agree.

Polls clearly show majority support for the Sandstrom bill and Tony Yapass is hated and despised by most Utahns and has been for years. Most would love to see him leave and take his countrymen with him. The upcoming legislative session is going to find far more church members on the Sandstrom side than the other one. As for the Utah CON PACT, it is only supported by open borders groups like the chamber of commerce, construction companies that hire illegals, and pandering politicians and the worthless Chief of Police for SLC who doesn't want to do his job. The church doesn't dare sign it. The church owned Deseret News does almost a daily article on the benefits of having lawbreaking illegal immigrants here and "how blessed we are to have them". They never talk about the crime and costs to the state of having them here.

It isn't working and the church stands to lose a substantial number of members over the issue if it isn't careful, it may come down to them making a choice between pandering to hispanics for new members or alienating a large part of the believers. Most Mormons you talk to will tell you that they are very upset about the duplicitous position the church is taking on the issue, they tell their members in foreign countries to stay where they are and that if they do immigrate elsewhere to so do" in compliance with all the laws of that country" they are immigrating to.

Now they seem to be intimating that anyone who doesn't want full blown amnesty for illegals is somehow "racist" or lacks "compassion", this approach only fans the fires of the those who are already angry over the non enforcement of current laws and feel the church is using its influence in that regard over the states law enforcement. In the meantime with in state tuition and ridiculous driving privilege cards (also slated to go soon) and a church and state welfare programs illegals are starting to get the message that we want them to feel welcome here and are interested in being another CA. Hopefully the majority is going to rule this year for the first time.

Originally Posted by Dansk9

Now they seem to be intimating that anyone who doesn't want full blown amnesty for illegals is somehow "racist" or lacks "compassion"....

The first rule of political analysis is, Follow the money. In Utah, just like everywhere else, owners win and everybody else pays the price.
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Americans first in this magnificent country

American jobs for American workers

Fair trade, not free trade

Utah is one of the states that has suffered dreadfully from stolen ID's, especially social security numbers of residents children being the target of this theft.

www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/50712403-78/ ... n.html.csp

I don't see the issue as they argue it. One says he supports the rule of law and the other says he supports family togetherness.

So rule of law says deport, deport the entire family so they stay together. Its compassionate and following the rule of law.

So much for being followers of the Bible matter what faith. Yappas clearly can't read or he'd read multiple parts in the bible where it says obey the laws as if its Gods laws and other such paraphrases.

Also wheres the compassion and family values for American Citizen families? We are put out and punished in favor of illegal families. Doesn't his values of family togetherness and compassion reach out to legal Americans?

I have traveled Utah for quite a number of years now. It is a beautiful state, and I like it a lot. Been in every corner.

I am not from Utah nor am I a Mormon, nor do I wish for this to sound like I am denigrating the state or its people. But for years now I have thought this reeks of hypocrisy. The Mormon Church has turned its eyes from unlawful activities and I need not read a single article to draw that conclusion as one only need open their eyes and ears and see blatant disregard for the law. One can draw conclusions rather quickly.

Not only does Utah and the Mormon Church disregard the law in their own state but it turns its eyes in the surrounding states as well and allows this disregard to flow to their neighbors. With neighbors like that, who needs enemies.

Utahns deserve better. The neighboring states deserve better. The hypocrisy should end.

Sorry if that seems offensive, but I call them the way I see them. If I can see it, how many others that visit the state can see it?

Its not just Mormons thou or Mormons in general. Its false churches who are beant on numbers and wealth. I really don't think there are any real churchs left that are big and broad reaching. They all have personal agenda's that are not the Bible. Many of these institutions claiming to be churchs are just fronts for political and personal agenda's.

This is why I think many Americans are losing their faith, myself included. I remember back with small churches that were unaffiliated with any major group and all they did was a place for believers to meet for religious purposes and maybe provide a soup kitchen if they had the donations. However those small unaffiliated churchs are nearly gone overran by as I'll term it "Church Meglo Corp" â„¢

Ditto that Syanis. Most churches are doing a delicate dance of survival between the NWO, the government, financial survival, politics of race and religious issues. I also do not believe that there are any real churches anymore or that any of them truly are doing God's work or preaching the truth. They dare not.

Churches are full of corrupt humans that do not even practice the principles of their own book to resolve the issues within their organization. That makes them hypocrits and merely another self-perpetuating bureaucracy.