Utah delegates discuss immigration reform
By Jamshid Ghazi Askar

Deseret News

Published: Saturday, Oct. 9, 2010 10:17 p.m. MDT

SALT LAKE CITY — The ongoing debate in Utah about immigration reform is primed to kick up yet another dust storm before year's end, when several bills pertaining to immigration are introduced in the state Legislature.

But to give adequate context to any analysis of state-based efforts to reform immigration law, one must first recognize that immigration is a fundamentally federal issue. Although a strong undertow of debate about whether states have any business legislating immigration is permeating both the federal courts and the public square on the heels of Arizona's enactment of its own immigration bill, nobody's arguing that immigration reform is first and foremost the responsibility of the federal government.

Which leads to the proverbial elephant in the room: At a time when immigration is the hottest of hot-button topics in the Beehive State, why hasn't Utah's congressional delegation parlayed the concerns if its constituents into any kind of palpable immigration reform?

To find answers to that question, the Deseret News contacted the five members of Utah's congressional delegation: Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett, as well as Reps. Jim Matheson, Rob Bishop and Jason Chaffetz. Hatch and the three representatives took time to answer questions and share insights about immigration reform. Bennett, whose 18-year tenure as the state's junior senator is ending, did not respond to interview requests.

To their credit, each of the four respondents offered salient, articulate insight into the complexities of Washington's inability to address immigration. Nobody proffered silver-bullet explanations for why immigration policy is broken or how to immediately fix it, but the amalgamation of their various viewpoints provides a three-dimensional world view of the challenges that lay ahead. Their varied explanations about the institutional failure of Congress to reform immigration law include references to a new immigration bill in the Senate, the terrorist attacks of 9/11, partisan politics, border security, a 19th century English author and a Comedy Central comedian.

Ironically, the one thing the quartet most strongly agrees with each other about is that Congress definitely should have done something about immigration by now.

The insider

Hatch's nearly 34 years in the Senate afford him impeccable credentials.

"I'm hardly a 'Johnny-come-lately' on immigration issues," Hatch said in an e-mail. "I am and always have been actively involved in tackling illegal immigration. I have taken the initiative to increase immigration enforcement in Utah, including bringing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) quick-response teams to our state, creating an immigration court and establishing an ICE Field Office Director position to address our state's immigration concerns. I also brought the 287(g) cross-deputizing program and recently helped bring the Secure Communities program to Utah.

"You'd be hard-pressed to find somebody who has done more on immigration enforcement for Utah than I have done."

He lays much of the blame for the current stalemate on federal immigration reform on Democrats.

"Democrats are in control of Congress and certainly carry the lion's share of the blame," Hatch said. "For example, throughout this Congress, the Democrats have tried to create buzz around a flawed bill they know will never pass, in an effort to get more people out to vote. That's just pathetic, really. You can't play political football on something this important.

"The problem doesn't end with Congress. The Obama administration is also playing politics with immigration to expand its liberal base."

On Sept. 29, Hatch gave a glimpse into how he thinks immigration reform should proceed when he introduced the Strengthening Our Commitment to Legal Immigration and America's Security Act. Among other things, the bill seeks to mandate increased cooperation between local law enforcement and ICE agents, as well as forbid members of known gang or criminal organizations from receiving visas to come to the U.S.

"While Utah is not a border state, the immigration problems we face are a residual effect of a porous border," Hatch said. "I dare say that many states across the nation are in a similar situation. That is why I introduced this bill — to shed light on some very serious issues that have been overlooked for too long."

The veteran

Currently seeking re-election for a sixth term, Matheson is the only Democrat among Utah's delegation and the most senior of the three Utahns in the House of Representatives.

With nearly a decade of service on Capitol Hill, Matheson can contextualize the source and cause of the current uproar over immigration. For example, he believes the federal government hasn't reformed immigration because of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

"I think that there was a certain level of momentum moving in the direction of addressing this issue when I first got in office (in 2001)," Mathson said. "I think that momentum was stopped by the Sept. 11 attacks. At that point, it was no longer an agenda item in Washington, and, in fact, after Sept. 11, a number of restrictions were put in on, for example, the guest worker programs that in some ways made it more challenging for folks to play by the rules.

"I think that was clearly a moment that affected the issue and really took it off the table."

Without exempting his own party from criticism, Matheson blames partisan politics for sidetracking the immigration issue ("both political parties," he said, "have got to stop leveraging this issue for the next election"). His three-part plan for fixing immigration includes increased enforcement for the use of e-Verify, a tool employers can use to confirm the immigration status of a prospective worker; strengthening border security; and improving the guest-worker program that allows immigrants to legally come work in the United States under the proviso they will eventually return home.

"There are very credible, pragmatic, nonideological steps that could be taken on this issue," Matheson said. "That I would like to think that people in Congress and members of both parties could reach consensus on those issues."

The pragmatist

Bishop feels any discussion of a comprehensive plan to reform existing immigration law would be an exercise in futility until the United States can secure its border with Mexico.

"I think securing the border is the most important step because it's the first step that has to take place before you can solve any other issue," Bishop said. "If the tub is overflowing, the first thing you do is turn off the water — not figure out where to put the water.

"There's the old saying by Lewis Carroll that (paraphrasing) says, 'If you do first things first, second things will be added to it. If you do second things first, you'll accomplish neither first nor second things.' Which is why the first thing that has to be there is border security."

He asserts that border patrol agents are severely inhibited from protecting the border by archeological laws, endangered species areas and historic laws that exist only on federal lands and prohibit border agents — limitations which illegal border-crossers knowingly use to their advantage. To that end, Bishop is cosponsoring House Bill 5016, which would free border patrol agents from those and other restrictions.

"Border patrol does a great job on private property, where, by law, they have total access to meet their needs," he said. "It's only on federal property that the federal border patrol is prohibited by federal land managers from actually being able to do their jobs, and that's what has to stop."

The true believer

"Congress has totally ignored this problem, and it's a shame because everyone knows it's broken and it has to be fixed," Chaffetz said. "For those of us that want to be part of the solution, it's terribly frustrating."

Sitting on the House Subcommittee on Immigration challenges Chaffetz's patience; he reached a bit of a breaking point last month when he skipped the immigration subcommittee meeting wherein Stephen Colbert, the Comedy Central funny man who Chaffetz once leg-wrestled on "The Colbert Report" television show, appeared before the subcommittee to offer ostensibly faux testimony about immigration issues.

"I've been on (the immigration subcommittee) for 21 months, and before Stephen Colbert, (the subcommittee) had only met 10 times," he said. "Never did we actually mark up a substantive immigration bill. Never."

"I have sponsored or cosponsored 12 pieces of immigration legislation. ... And yet, (none of it) has ever come up before the subcommittee. That's what's frustrating."

Like Matheson, Chaffetz also has his own three-part plan: enforce current laws, secure the border and rectify a broken immigration system.

Unlike Matheson, though, Chaffez blames only the Democrats for the political gridlock keeping immigration reform from happening.

"Democrats don't seem to have time for worthwhile bills that are done in a bipartisan way," he said. "I think that's why (House Speaker) Nancy Pelosi is about to get fired. Hopefully, if leadership changes in the House, hopefully that will change in the (immigration) subcommittee as well."

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