LATINOS DE UTAH: May 2011

Monday, May 30, 2011

A Crackdown on Employing Illegal Workers

TUCSON — Obama administration officials are sharpening their crackdown on the hiring of illegal immigrants by focusing increasingly tough criminal charges on employers while moving away from criminal arrests of the workers themselves.
After months of criticism from Republicans who said President Obama was relaxing immigration enforcement in workplaces, the scope of the administration’s strategy has become clear as long-running investigations of employers have culminated in indictments, convictions, exponentially increased fines and jail sentences.

READ MORE: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/30/us/politics/30raid.html

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Sandstrom: New immigration law should be considered in special session

SALT LAKE CITY — A state lawmaker said Saturday that Utah needs to quickly pass its own version of an Arizona law intended to stop the hiring of illegal immigrants, now that it's been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

"It's imperative now that Utah act," said Rep. Stephen Sandstrom, R-Orem, warning that more undocumented workers will come to the state as a result of the court's decision to uphold the 2007 Arizona law penalizing employers who hire them.

READ MORE: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705373539/Sandstrom-New-immigration-law-should-be-considered-in-special-session.html

Friday, May 27, 2011

EXCLUSIVE: Latino leader reacts to expected "List" charges

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - Thursday night, ABC 4 News broke the story that charges were expected to be filed soon against main immigration “List” suspect Teresa Bassett.

Bassett (who has since legally changed her name to London Grace Wellington) is expected to be charged with multiple third degree felonies.

READ MORE: http://www.abc4.com/content/news/state/story/EXCLUSIVE-Latino-leader-reacts-to-expected-List/s3jH7g4Idk23iYmY8oHaUQ.cspx

EXCLUSIVE: Immigration "List" charges expected soon

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - ABC 4 News has learned criminal charges are expected to be filed within days against one of the women who allegedly created “The List” of suspected Utah illegal immigrants.

The woman formerly known as Teresa Bassett (she recently changed her name to London Grace Wellington) is now expected to appear in court within the next week or two.
READ MORE: http://www.abc4.com/content/news/state/story/EXCLUSIVE-Immigration-List-charges-expected-soon/JBwKotZIrkm9ZD-zDI8YZA.cspx

Suprema Corte avala Ley Arizona

WASHINGTON, D.C.— Una decisión de la Suprema Corte dio impulso ayer a las facultades de los estados para legislar en asuntos relacionados con inmigración. Es uno de los principales argumentos usados para defender la controversial legislación SB1070, ahora a las puertas del máximo tribunal.

Por un fallo de 5 contra 3, la Suprema Corte reafirmó el caso Cámara de Comercio versus Whiting, que permite la vigencia de la Ley de Trabajadores Legales de Arizona (LAWA). Esta autoriza el uso obligatorio de E-Verify y penaliza a negocios que contraten inmigrantes indocumentados.

LEER MAS: http://www.impre.com/laopinion/noticias/primera-pagina/2011/5/27/suprema-corte-avala-ley-arizon-257834-1.html#commentsBlock

Corte Suprema falló a favor de ley que castiga contrata ilegal en Arizona

El máximo tribunal de Justicia de Estados Unidos falló -por cinco votos a favor y tres en contra- a favor de una ley promulgada en 2008 que faculta al estado de Arizona sancionar a empresas que, a sabiendas, contraten a inmigrantes indocumentados.

La decisión judicial reavivó el debate migratorio y podría promover que otros estados o ciudades adopten sus propias medidas migratorias, entre ellos el propio Arizona con la promulgación de la polémica SB 1070, y recientes medidas similares adoptadas en Georgia, Indiana y Texas.

LEER MAS AQUI: http://noticias.univision.com/inmigracion/noticias/article/2011-05-26/corte-suprema-e-verify?ftloc=channel1486:wcmWidgetUimStage&ftpos=channel1486:wcmWidgetUimStage:1

U.S. Supreme Court ruling on immigration law could have impact on Utah

SALT LAKE CITY — A U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding an Arizona law that penalizes business for hiring illegal immigrants could put some weight behind a similar measure in Utah.

By a 5-3 vote, the court said Thursday that federal immigration law gives states the authority to impose sanctions on employers who hire undocumented workers. In so doing, it rejected arguments that states have no role in immigration matters.

READ MORE: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705373417/US-Supreme-Court-ruling-on-immigration-law-could-have-impact-on-Utah.html

Supreme Court ruling could affect Utah immigration law

The U.S. Supreme Court ruling Thursday upholding Arizona’s law requiring businesses to use a federal employment verification program could be a precursor to validating at least a portion of Utah’s controversial guest worker bill passed earlier this year.

Utah’s law, HB116, has a similar provision that requires employers in the state to use E-verify, the federal database that allows employers to check the status of an employee.

Utah Compact gains foothold in Arizona

The Utah Compact is serving as a template for some states grappling with immigration reform, but few places can boast the symbolic impact of what happened this week in Mesa, Ariz.

The seven-member Mesa Human Relations Advisory Board unanimously voted Wednesday to forward a version of it to the City Council. It is a notable moment, given Mesa is in the backyard of anti-immigration firebrand and Arizona state Senate President Russell Pearce.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Judge puts Utah illegal immigration enforcement bill on hold

SALT LAKE CITY — A federal judge Tuesday put Utah's new enforcement-only immigration law on ice.
That means police throughout the state, for now, may not ask people arrested for felonies and class A misdemeanors and those booked into jail on class B and class C misdemeanors about their status in the country as outlined in HB497.

U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups made the temporary restraining order effective until he orders otherwise. The bill was to become law Tuesday.

READ MORE: http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=15482818

Hearing On Hours-Old Utah Immigration Law

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - A federal judge is hearing arguments Tuesday to decide whether to block a new Utah immigration law that lets police check the citizenship status of anyone they arrest.

U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups is set holding a hearing on the matter in Salt Lake City hours after the law goes into effect.

Two civil rights groups sued to stop the law and want an injunction.
READ MORE: http://connect2utah.com/news-story/?nxd_id=145727

Federal judge blocks Utah law targeting illegal immigration

Utah’s enforcement-only immigration law was on the books for less than 15 hours before a federal judge blocked it from being enforced Tuesday afternoon during a hearing that took less than an hour.

U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups issued the temporary restraining order after the lawyer for the state couldn’t argue that there wouldn’t be “irreparable harm” to people if the law remained in effect.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Utah’s immigration bill to get day in court

A federal judge will hear arguments Tuesday whether Utah’s enforcement-only immigration bill should be enforced or be set aside because civil rights groups believe it violates the U.S. Constitution.

The law, HB497, is slated to take effect at midnight — meaning it will be enforceable for as long as there is no ruling on the case. Both the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Immigration Law Center had attempted to reach an agreement with Attorney General Mark Shurtleff on Monday to delay the law’s start until after the court hearing, but those talks were unsuccessful.

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Immigration: LDS Church has duty to protect missionaries

As the angst continues to swirl within Utah Republican circles over the LDS Church’s increasingly apparent support of the Legislature’s package of immigration bills that includes a guest-worker provision, there is an elephant-in-the-room component that everyone seems to be missing.

The LDS Church has as big a stake in this debate as any institution or association. Therefore, despite those who cry foul over the church’s support of more humanitarian solutions than an Arizona-style enforcement-only law, church officials and lobbyists not only had a right to get involved at the legislative level, it had an obligation to do so.

Arizona law: Buyer’s remorse?

Mesa, Ariz • Fernando Hernandez feels weary on a Sunday morning as he sits alone in his office in this suburb connected to Phoenix by car-clogged freeways and seemingly endless rows of empty strip malls.

Last year, about 600 clients paid for his tax preparation services and he employed four people to help with the onslaught. The day before the filing deadline, he and his staff worked until nearly midnight.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

McEntee: Immigration lawsuit will be costly but necessary

Milton Ivan Salazar-Gomez has lived in Utah since his parents brought him here when he was 10 months old. His two children are U.S. citizens. And he’s afraid he’ll be busted by a police officer who won’t know the feds have cleared him, not to be a citizen, but to be here legally. For now.

Salazar-Gomez is one of five individual plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed this week to stop a new law from forcing police officers to take on a job that rightly belongs to federal agents — spotting and busting people in the country illegally.

SLC-area mayors urged to make immigration an economic issue

South Salt Lake • Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff and an adviser to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg asked mayors Wednesday to help refocus the debate and show how fixing immigration could boost the economy and create jobs.

“The immigration issue really is an economic issue,” Shurtleff told a Utah League of Cities and Towns forum attended mostly by area mayors. That’s partly because the economy still depends heavily on labor by undocumented workers, he said, and ways must be found to fill that need within the rule of law.

'Smart' immigration reform would create more American jobs, speaker says

SALT LAKE CITY — Smart immigration reform would lead to more American jobs.
That's the message Jeremy Robbins, policy adviser to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, left with Utah political and business leaders Wednesday. It's a notion, he said, that is lost in the debate about how to fix a broken immigration system.
"Immigration reform is an economic imperative," he said. "The story is immigrants create jobs. Millions of Americans have jobs today because of immigrants."

READ MORE: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705372023/Smart-immigration-reform-would-create-more-American-jobs-speaker-says.html

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Utah sued by ACLU over illegal immigration enforcement law

SALT LAKE CITY — Alicia Cervantes fears Utah's new illegal immigration enforcement law will subject her to police questioning because she is Latina.

A U.S. citizen born in Utah, Cervantes also believes the passage of HB497 has already led to anti-immigrant sentiment in the state. Recently, her daughter's classmates have said things such as "Send the Mexicans home."

READ MORE: http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=15394129

NILC and ACLU File Lawsuit Challenging Utah “Show Me Your Papers” Law

HERE IS THE LINK FOR THE LAWSUIT THAT WAS FILED TODAY AGAINST HB-497

http://www.nilc.org/immlawpolicy/LocalLaw/UCLR-v-Herbert-complaint-2011-05-03.pdf

NILC and ACLU File Lawsuit Challenging Utah “Show Me Your Papers” Law

SALT LAKE CITY — The National Immigration Law Center (NILC), the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Utah, and the law firm of Munger, Tolles & Olsen filed a class action lawsuit today charging that Utah’s recently passed law, HB 497, like Arizona’s notorious SB 1070, authorizes police to demand “papers” demonstrating citizenship or immigration status during traffic stops, invites racial profiling of Latinos and others who appear “foreign” to an officer, and interferes with federal law.

READ MORE: http://www.nilc.org/pubs/news-releases/nr062.htm

ACLU, others sue to block Utah immigration law

Several local and national civil rights groups filed a lawsuit against Utah’s enforcement-only immigration law Tuesday — just days before it is scheduled to go into effect — calling it “unconstitutional” and an open pathway to racial profiling.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the National Immigration Law Center were joined by Archie Archuletta, a member of the Utah Coalition of La Raza, in filing the suit in federal district court against Gov. Gary Herbert and Attorney General Mark Shurtleff.

ACLU files lawsuit against Utah illegal immigration enforcement law

SALT LAKE CITY — The ACLU has filed a class-action lawsuit against what it calls Utah's "show me your papers" illegal immigration enforcement law the Legislature passed earlier this year.

In addition to the national and local chapters of the ACLU, the National Immigration Law Center claim HB497 authorizes police to demand papers proving citizenship or immigration status during traffic stops. They contend the law invites racial profiling of Latinos and other who appear "foreign" to police officers.

READ MORE: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705371907/ACLU-files-lawsuit-against-Utah-illegal-immigration-enforcement-law.html

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Immigration officials may deport Mormon branch president and family

DRAPER — A local leader of an LDS Church Spanish-speaking congregation who faces deportation unwittingly finds himself in the sights of Latino activists looking to further their position in the ongoing illegal immigration debate.

Immigrations agents arrested Felix Joaquin Callejas-Hernandez, his wife and two teenage children April 19 and they all now face deportation to their native El Salvador. Callejas served as president of the Eastridge 9th Branch in Draper until his release last week.

READ MORE: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705371685/Immigration-officials-may-deport-Mormon-branch-president-and-family.html

LDS leader’s arrest puts spotlight on immigration stand

A local Mormon leader is being held in a Utah County jail awaiting deportation after federal authorities arrested him and his family nearly two weeks ago for being in the country illegally.

Felix Callejas, an LDS branch president in Draper, oversaw a congregation of about 100 and was picked up by U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) agents April 19 after a failed attempt to obtain legal asylum from his native country of El Salvador.

Some LDS conservatives now at odds with their church

For decades, Mormon conservatives have believed their politics on a number of issues matched with the positions of their church. They opposed abortion, the Equal Rights Amendment and same-sex marriage, for example, and so did their religion.

But now comes an issue that puts the two seemingly at odds: immigration.