Thread: Shurtleff blocks GOP plan to jump into immigration suit

Shurtleff blocks GOP plan to jump into immigration suit

sltrib.com
By robert gehrke
and David montero

The Salt Lake Tribune
First published Dec 20 2011 07:36PM
Updated Dec 20, 2011 11:45PM

State lawmakers who spent days hatching a plan to jump into the middle of a federal lawsuit over Utah’s enforcement-only immigration law were thwarted Tuesday after an angry Attorney General Mark Shurtleff quashed the effort within a few short hours.

"Let me make this very clear: It is not happening," Shurtleff said Tuesday before he met with House Speaker Becky Lockhart, R-Provo, to enlist her help in shutting down the effort.

Shortly after that private meeting, the legislators quickly pulled the plug.

The plan was hatched by Rep. Curtis Oda, R-Clearfield, who had enlisted attorney general candidate, Sean Reyes, to work pro bono and represent the Legislature as a defendant in the HB497 case — even though Gov. Gary Herbert is the only defendant named in the lawsuit.

Oda got Rep. Chris Herrod, R-Provo, onboard, and Rep. Stephen Sandstrom, HB497’s sponsor, said he, too, hadn’t ruled out being a party to the effort. All told, Oda said, up to 18 lawmakers had backed the plan.

It would have been an unusual step for legislators to seek being named as defendants in such a case. Of five states — Indiana, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina and Arizona — embroiled in lawsuits over enforcement-only immigration measures, only Arizona’s Legislature entered as a late party into the litigation with an outside party representing it.

"You would think a group of legislators who tout the Constitution as much as Herrod and these guys do," Shurtleff said, "would understand that the Utah Constitution prohibits them from doing that."

The Utah Constitution names the attorney general as the chief legal adviser to state officers.And, by statute, he is charged with representing the state in court. Shurtleff has, in the past, sought outside counsel in certain cases, but he emphasized he would not ask for — or permit — such help on this matter.

The legislators wanted Reyes to move quickly to file a motion to intervene in the U.S. Justice Department’s challenge to the enforcement provisions in Utah’s immigration law.

"If we’re going to defend this thing, we want the best, and these guys are experts and they basically will help the A.G.’s Office," Oda said Tuesday afternoon.

About 45 minutes later, lawmakers abandoned their plan. "We decided it wouldn’t be prudent," Oda said.

Reyes said legislators approached him because "it’s something extremely important to them and they wanted to make sure they had the best defense of the bill available." Reyes has argued federal preemption issues before, including at the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and has expressed support for the bill as he campaigns for attorney general.

But Shurtleff, who is backing his chief deputy John Swallow to replace him and opposed the enforcement legislation before it passed, said he would have no part of it.

"I’m certainly not going to authorize some political stunt like that," Shurtleff said. " ... It’s highly offensive to me."

Shurtleff said he has experienced constitutional litigators on the case who believe they have a strong argument that Utah’s law is legal. He said it appears Reyes is trying to "out-conservative" Swallow.

"It’s political gamesmanship," he said. "It reeks of that and not only that it’s unlawful. And you would think that people maybe considering other offices would recognize that."

Sandstrom, who was in Denver, spoke with Swallow by phone and decided he wanted to retreat from the plan.

"I’m going to back away," Sandstrom said. "If they don’t have the bill’s sponsor supporting it, it’s not going to happen."

Herrod said he liked the idea of the legislators getting their own legal counsel, especially if it was free, but backed away when it became clear they would be getting into the middle of the Reyes-Swallow race.

The measure, signed by Herbert in March, was part of a series of immigration-related bills passed by the Legislature. HB497 was the one that used Arizona’s enforcement-only law as a template. It would require police to check thecitizenship status of those arrested for felonies and class A misdemeanors.

However, it differs from Arizona’s measure, because it gives police discretion in checking the status ofsuspects in lower level misdemeanors.

HB497 took effect for only a few hours when a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order on behalf of the ACLU of Utah and the National Immigration Law Center (NILC), both of which sued the state in May.

On Nov. 23, the federal government joined that lawsuit against Utah. A hearing is set for Feb. 17.

Shiu-Ming Cheer, an immigration attorney with NILC, said having legislators seek to join the lawsuit would delay the casewith a wave of additional motions and briefs.

"We think, as currently defended by the governor, that’s the party that would be enforcing the law," Cheer said. "The Legislature already decided to pass the law, and that’s a separate function of what their position should be after the law is signed."

In Arizona, recently recalled Sen. Russell Pearce, who carried that state’s immigration-enforcement law, initially tried to be named as a defendant but was ruled to not have standing.

But a law signed by Gov. Jan Brewer in 2011 allowed the Legislature to obtain outside legal representation in lawsuits. Sothe judge ruled that lawmakers did have standing in the case, which the U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear this spring.

Sandstrom said the more likely road for Utah lawmakers to take now would be to file an amicus brief in support of Shurtleff and HB497.

"I want to make sure that a bill that passed by an overwhelming number of legislators stands up in court," Sandstrom said, "and we do whatever we can do to make sure that happens."

gehrke@sltrib.com

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/53...tml.csp?page=1

Utah Attorney General Unable to Effectively Defend Utah's Enforcement Law

By Ronald W. Mortensen, December 15, 2011In early 2011, by an overwhelming vote of both houses, the Utah state legislature enacted an illegal immigration enforcement law (HB497) which has been described by its opponents as a "watered down version" of Arizona's SB1070. In spite of this, advocates for illegal aliens still filed suit to prevent it from taking effect.

Unfortunately for the legislature that passed the law, the governor who signed it, and the citizens who support it, HB497 is being defended by Utah's Attorney General, Mark Shurtleff, who is an unwavering advocate for illegal aliens, an unabashed supporter of amnesty, and a key ally of the government of Mexico.

Shurtleff has established a long and extreme record of support for illegal aliens.

He has publicly promised them that he will not arrest them.

He has gone from condemning illegal alien-driven, employment-related child identity theft to arguing that it is not a serious matter, even though the victims suffer very real and serious harm.

And most recently he sat quietly by while Salt Lake City Chief of Police Chris Burbank excused illegal alien document fraud and joined prominent Utah radio talk show host Doug Wright in an outburst of laughter when people in the audience shouted out locations where fraudulent identities can be purchased.

In addition, Shurtleff is the leading advocate for the phony Utah Compact and for its legislative incarnation, HB116 (originally SB28. Like the Utah Compact, HB116 is designed solely to promote amnesty, to provide employers with a captive workforce, to relegate illegal aliens to virtual involuntary servitude, and to prevent the passage of strong enforcement legislation.

Shurtleff even pressured the Mormon Church to oppose the enactment of strong enforcement legislation.
Finally, Utah's Attorney General has a long history of supporting the government of Mexico's position on illegal immigration and other issues. In recognition of his "Working with federal, state and local leaders to come up with a sensible solution to the immigration problem," Shurtleff was given the Aztec Eagle, the highest decoration the Mexican government can award to a non-Mexican.

According to a press release issued by the Attorney General's office, the award ceremony was to be held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Mexico City and followed by a private meeting at the president's home.

With Shutleff in charge of defending HB497, citizens of Utah who support the bill along with the 79 percent of Utah state Representatives and the 76 percent of Utah state Senators who voted for it, have good reason to be concerned that he will not be able to put their interests ahead of the interests of illegal aliens and the interests of the government of Mexico.

Given his disdain for immigration enforcement and his close links to Mexico, which has filed an amicus brief supporting the challenge to HB497, Shurtleff should stop pretending to defend HB497 and turn its defense over to someone who does not have a conflict of interest. Failing that, state legislators should get their own legal counsel in order to defend both their and their constituent's interests.

http://cis.org/mortensen/utah-AG-una...nforcement-law