The Next Mormon Mission

It’s no secret that the Mormon Church is a powerhouse in Utah state politics, and what church leaders support and condone very much impacts state policies and directives. Considered a conservative Republican stronghold, one would hardly expect Utah to pave the way for a balanced immigration policy, yet one that might just reflect the multi-cultural diversity that results from a church that encourages its young and faithful to embark on a year-long mission of faith at some significant time of their lives… often learning languages and cultures very different from our own. Utah, however, may just be the “anti-Arizona” model of immigration reform; it actually provides a mechanism for undocumented aliens to work legitimately in the state… and the Mormon Church is clearly supporting a realistic approach.

Make no mistake, the Utah approach will not be an easy open door; anyone stopped for a felony or a serious misdemeanor gets their immigration checked, with obvious consequences for not having the proper status. But Utah also knows that undocumented aliens constitute a significant part of their American workforce that is not going to disappear because there are laws to the contrary. The legislation which passed the legislature on March 4^th now goes to the governor: “Utah would issue a two-year work permit to illegal immigrants who could prove that they had been living and working in the state. To qualify, immigrants would have to pass a criminal background check and pay fines of up to $2,500.

“The bill gives the governor until 2013 to negotiate with federal immigration authorities for a waiver for the guest worker program. Under federal law, it is a violation for an employer to knowingly hire an illegal immigrant. If no waiver has been obtained by then, the guest worker program would go into effect anyway.” New York Times, March 6^th. Still whether Utah’s guest worker legislation is appropriate or whether the field is completely preempted by the federal government has yet to be determined by the Supreme Court, which is about to consider the constitutionality of the Arizona legislation.

As undocumented aliens move increasingly away from the border states into virtually every nook and cranny of American life everywhere, it seems patently obvious that trying to legislate a mass departure of everyone illegal is completely absurd. Equally obvious to anyone with an eye for statistics is that there is certain work that Americans simply don’t do every under the worse of economic times. Picture an American worker gravitating between working as a migrant stoop laborer in agricultural fields or running the killing shot line at the local slaughterhouse. Think also of the rise in prices if such undocumented workers were truly excised from our economy.

“‘Utah is the anti-Arizona,’ said Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice, a group in Washington that favors legislation by Congress to grant legal status to illegal immigrants. ‘Instead of indulging the fantasy that you can drive thousands of people out of your state, it combines enforcement with the idea that those who are settled should be brought into the system.’” NY Times. The truth about “immigration control” advocates is that they are long on doctrines and slogans and short on reality. If people really want to deal with seemingly porous borders and uncontrolled immigration, they have to deal with employers that need these workers and the fact that millions of undocumented aliens are simply not going to be legislated into leaving.

I’m Peter Dekom, and either you want a solution or you want something to yell about; pick one.