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.

READ MORE: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/51780128-90/court-effect-enforcement-federal.html.csp 

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.

READ MORE: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/opinion/51758464-82/church-latin-lds-missionaries.html.csp

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.

READ MORE: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/51753443-90/pearce-arizona-says-law.html.csp

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.

READ MORE: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/51752703-90/immigration-utah-law-cops.html.csp

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.

READ MORE: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/51752582-90/immigration-utah-economy-issue.html.csp

'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

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