Immigration reform gets a model

SALT LAKE CITY – Liberal immigration reform advocates are looking to Utah as a compassionate and logical model for shaping the nation’s future policies toward illegal immigrants.

Utah leaders – including government, education, business and religious groups – came together last fall to draft a set of principles to guide the immigration debate in the state. Those guidelines, known as the Utah Compact, state in part that illegal immigrants are essential to the economy and deserving of respect.

The recommendations are credited with helping pass an immigration reform package last month in the Utah Legislature that included enforcement provisions and a guest worker program.

“The leadership in Utah, through the Compact, changed the debate around the country,” said Ali Noorani, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based National Immigration Forum. “It’s clear the Compact has struck a chord with the silent majority that wants reform.”

Noorani is working with Utah officials to create a national version of the plan, which could be announced as early as this summer.

Opponents say the approach will lead to amnesty programs that only benefit big business and caution it will lead to more illegal immigration.

“They are trying to create the illusion of popular support for amnesty,” said William Gheen, the executive director of the North Carolina-based Americans for Legal Immigration. “But the reverse is true. Most people only want enforcement.”

Groups spearheaded by religious and business leaders in several other states are now adopting their own versions of the Utah Compact. Most are adopting Utah language that encourages keeping families together and urges compassion in law enforcement.

“It’s important to represent the human side,” said Kathryn Williams, co-chair of the Alliance for Immigration Reform in Indiana. “It’s also important to set the tenor of the debate so it’s about what happens to that human.”