Around the mountains: Immigrants advised to be ready for strict law in Utah

Saturday, April 4, 2009

By ALLEN BEST

PARK CITY, Utah — Attendees of St. Mary’s Catholic Church were advised, in a communication read in Spanish, of changes to be implemented in Utah beginning in July. A new law requires local sheriff’s deputies and police officers to arrest people if, in the course of other duties, they discover they are in the United States without proof of legal residency.

Father Bob Bussen, a religious leader at the church, told the Park Record that there is a “growing fear in the immigrant community, legal and non-legal, that any immigrant is up for suspicion. They’re very concerned that they’re going to lose their jobs or that the police will pick them up. They’re afraid to open their doors.â€