Deseret Morning News, February 15, 2008
Richard Davis and Larry Brown

Both privately in sessions with Republican and Democratic leaders and publicly through Elder Marlin Jensen in a recent speech, LDS Church general authorities are signaling Republican and Democratic leaders that "'the element of humanity' should be reintroduced to the state's immigration debates." We wholeheartedly agree, particularly since that has not been the approach of state Republican leaders recently.

For example, on Feb. 7, a scant month after the church's admonition to state leaders, federal agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement stormed a Lindon manufacturing plan and arrested 57 undocumented workers. U.S. Attorney Brett Tolman, a Republican, authorized the Lindon raid. Tolman claimed his office would show compassion for the families of the arrested men.

By compassion, Tolman must have meant separating husbands and fathers and their paychecks from their terrified wives and children.

By compassion, Tolman must have meant labeling the workers as criminals and slapping them with bail set at $7,500, an amount they can't possibly raise, assuring their continued incarceration (at taxpayers expense), separation from their loved ones and probable deportation.

Unfortunately, the response from the state Legislature has not been an expression of compassion. Instead, the Legislature is moving quickly in the opposite direction. The House voted to repeal in-state college tuition benefits for the children of illegal documents who attended Utah high schools. Also, the Legislature is putting SB81 on the fast track to passage.

What is SB81? It is a bill that limits what undocumented people can do and punishes others who help them, even unknowingly. For example, it would prohibit the undocumented from getting a medical alert identification. It also potentially would make it a misdemeanor for anyone who gives a ride to an undocumented person or has an undocumented renter.

This does not sound like compassion. Compassion is finding a way to solve the illegal immigration problem in the long run rather than punishing illegal immigrants and their families, many of whom have worked in the U.S. for years. That is not what SB81 does.

The reality is thousands of undocumented workers and their families reside in the state. They are here illegally, and that is wrong. They know it is wrong. They would rather have legal status. But they also want to support their families. And many U.S. employers encourage them to cross the border to come to work for them in order to fill shortages in our labor supply.

We should be finding a way to welcome foreign laborers by creating a guest worker program, not crafting vindictive laws to punish immigrants and their families for filling open jobs in a labor-starved market. We have a full-employment economy, and illegal immigrants fill jobs that otherwise would go begging.

The state Legislature should create a bipartisan commission to suggest three things:

1. Lobby Congress to pass legislation creating a guest worker program.

2. Pass state legislation to crack down on businesses that encourage illegal workers.

3. Define humane ways to enforce immigration law.

Church leaders were expressing what we all know. Utahns are recognized for our compassion. We are a people who believe that feeding the hungry, clothing the naked and strengthening families is a moral imperative. In an era of unprecedented wealth and prosperity in Utah, even given the recent economic unrest, we urge lawmakers to respond to the call for a more humane treatment of undocumented workers and their families.

Richard Davis and Larry Brown are, respectively, chairman and vice chairman of the Utah County Democratic Party.