As deputy attorney general in both the Reagan and George H. Bush administrations, I supervised the Immigration and Naturalization Service, now Immigration and Customs Enforcement, under directives of Attorneys General Edwin Meese and Dick Thornburgh and the presidents. Immigration was a political hot potato then as it is now.
Several states in addition to Utah are proposing immigration legislation because of the failure of the U.S. Senate to adopt the House bill last year. This, however, is not an appropriate response. We need a national resolution of the many complex issues in the immigration debate. The states would be well advised to step back and take a deep breath.
When the pioneers came to the Great Salt Lake Valley, they were illegal immigrants moving into what was then Mexico. For the past 25 or more years our government has looked the other way as Mexican nationals entered the United States illegally or, having entered legally, over-stayed their visas. In a sense, we enabled the current situation to develop, and we should reduce the level of our self-righteousness.
Most of the bills proposed are simply bad policy. Revoking driving privilege cards will increase the number of unqualified and uninsured drivers and could increase the number of hit-and-run accidents.
Revocation of in-state tuition will reduce the number of college-trained workers without materially benefiting the public treasury.
A state statute making local law enforcement officers federal agents is likely unconstitutional. A federal judge recently struck down an anti-illegal-immigration city ordinance on the ground that local action was pre-empted by federal law. Our local law enforcement officers oppose the idea.
Utah employers are strongly against being required to verify immigrant status. They do not want to become ICE agents.
Rather than try to solve national issues on a local level, we all should urge our congressional representatives to get to their offices and go to work.
We need to recognize the important contributions immigrants make to our economy and make a sincere effort to eliminate racism from the equation.
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* HAROLD G. CHRISTENSEN was deputy attorney general of the United States, 1988-'89, and is a trial lawyer at Snow Christensen & Martineau. He has been a law professor at the S. J. Quinney College of Law, University of Utah; Hastings College of the Law, University of California; Bond University, Queensland, Australia.
