By Peg McEntee

| Tribune Columnist

For more than six hours, lawyers on both sides of HB497 did legal battle in U.S. District Court over Utah’s rebuke to federal immigration policy, and neither side found common cause.

That’s understandable. Assistant Utah attorneys general argued that the state has every right to a role in determining a person’s immigration status.

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Lawyers with the U.S. Department of Justice and the National Immigration Law Center countered that Congress has repeatedly confirmed that, when it comes to immigration, the federal government has supremacy over the states.

The conflict represents an increasingly vituperative battle between the feds and several states over the issue of who can make and enforce immigration law. In April, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments over Arizona’s SB1070, one of the first and strictest state immigration laws.

On Friday, the Law Center’s Karen Tumlin argued Utah’s bill rejects the long-standing precedent that federal authorities provide control and supervision over immigration enforcement. That leaves little room for local or state police to detain or arrest people who cannot immediately confirm they’re here legally.

But Assistant Attorney General Tim Evans argued that Utah already does some immigration policing of those who would, for example, transport or conceal undocumented immigrants — as does federal law.

"Isn’t that a problem?" asked U.S District Judge Clark Waddoups. "Two crimes — one for us, one for Utah? What gives the state the right to make laws about coming into Utah?"

In a very real sense, this day in court was not just about one conflict between the feds and Utah. It’s proof that all too many of us have lost faith in our state and national governance.

You can see it in the presidential campaign, as Republican candidates duke it out over who’s the most conservative and who can clean up the mess they claim the Obama administration has wrought. You can see it in Congress’ bitter bickering.

Here in Utah, we’ll see it when party caucuses are held next month, when state conventions arrive in April and in June during the primary elections. No love fests there.

Nobody, it seems, has an answer for the vitriol, including me.

But it does hurt my heart to see this state and this nation so fractured. Is there anyone who can stand up and say enough is enough, and to foster a statewide and national move toward reconciliation?

Anyone?

Peg McEntee is a news columnist. Reach her at pegmcentee@sltrib.com, facebook.com/pegmcentee and Twitter, @pegmcentee.