Anti Illegal Immigration - Pro Streamlining Citizenship
Utah’s own history is rooted in the immigrant experience. Colonized by refugees escaping religious persecution, the people of Utah are uniquely appreciative of immigrants’ positive role in society. Like the early pioneers, many come from foreign lands with the hope to freely live, work and worship as they will. We must push our lawmakers to introduce a common-sense immigration bill. We need compassionate immigration reform aimed at keeping families intact, while still able to secure borders against potential threats.
We must make our border areas safer for those who patrol them, live near them, or desire to cross them by aggressively targeting the trafficking of humans and narcotics. We should be vigilant against those who would enter the U.S. with the express purpose of harming our citizens. We have a responsibility to implement safe, secure, and orderly borders. At the same time, We need reforms to protect migrants and to respond to unplanned refugee influxes with humane facilities adequate to house people and families in distress. In our sincere efforts to protect our country against real threats, we can’t make the mistake of forgetting the human dignity of the families and individuals who are trying to start over in a land of freedom. Part of this effort to address the crisis at our borders has to be in acknowledging and working to undo the root causes of migration, many of which concern our country’s dark history of military, political, and economic intervention. There must be a variety of bridge-building efforts between communities and newly-arriving immigrants, including offering lessons in civics and English for immigrants.
We will work to reform temporary visa programs to prevent companies from exploiting temporary workers and disadvantaging our citizens in skilled occupations. Immigrants play a pivotal role in the Utah economy. Now, more than ever, they help fill in many essential roles where we have a labor shortage and where we have a high demand for jobs. I support a path to citizenship for “Dreamers” brought to the US as children and advocate for reasonable accommodations for unauthorized immigrants without a criminal record who seek permanent residency.