Immigration 'compact' in Utah an alternative to Arizona law

Scott Wong - Nov. 12, 2010 03:45 PM
POLITICO.COM

A coalition of conservative Utah leaders says the state shouldn't share its neighbor's tough approach to illegal immigration.

An Arizona-style immigration bill has already been introduced in the Utah Legislature that would require police to enforce federal immigration laws. But political, religious and community leaders are offering "The Utah Compact," as an alternative, calling for a federal rather than a state or local solution to the nation's broken immigration system.

The compact supports policies that preserve the state's free-market tradition and don't split up immigrant families.

"We could do an Arizona-style approach, a round 'em up approach, an approach of starving them out," Paul Mero, president of the conservative think tank Sutherland Institute, said Friday on a conference call with reporters. "But as a conservative and believer in freedom, there is no way in hell I will be part of rounding up innocent people. And as an ethical and moral person ... I'm not going to be part of starving them out. That leaves one option: helping them."

The compact has been endorsed by a number of Utah Republicans, including Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, former Govs. Olene Walker and Norman Bangerter and Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker.

While Utahans believe in the rule of law, Shurtleff said, an enforcement-only approach to illegal immigration is "counterproductive and harmful."

"Making every cop using questionable grounds to determine if someone is here legally or illegally will create huge problems for law enforcement," he said on the conference call organized by the National Immigration Forum, which advocates for comprehensive immigration reform.

Arizona's controversial immigration law, which was signed last spring by Republican Gov. Jan Brewer but is tied up in the federal courts, has remained popular among voters and helped fuel Republican victories in the midterm elections.

But Lane Beattie, president of the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce and the former state Senate president, argued that Utah faces different issues than Arizona, which shares a 370-mile border with Mexico.

"The reality is Arizona is different than Utah," Beattie said. "Arizona is dealing with issues that we are not dealing with."

Added Mero: "Utah isn't Arizona. And I think up to now, Utahans have not had an alternative to an Arizona-style approach and Arizona-style debate. Now with the Utah compact, you have an alternative."

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