The Ivins resident heads the Citizens Council on Illegal Immigration, which aims to highlight the growing problems in the St. George area from undocumented immigrants.

Sears argues that the influx of Latinos - an estimated 5,000 in and around St. George - is damaging the schools, the economy, public health and public safety.

"People should obey the law and if they do not, they should not be allowed to stay here," she said.

Sears said she expects to be called a racist and xenophobe, but added that such labels come from those who cannot refute her arguments.

"Such labeling paralyzes thinking," she said. "There are too many problems for that to happen. We have to concentrate on the problems."

Sears - who is originally from California and later served on a city council in suburban Phoenix. She picked St. George because she thought the southwestern Utah community would be relatively crime-free.

Within a year, she recalls, problems that plagued Arizona and California began to surface here.

She said undocumented workers often are taken advantage of by unscrupulous employers.

"The only ones profiting are business people who get cheap labor, and it is a terrible price to pay for cheap labor," Sears said.

But Tony Yapias, director of the Governor's Office of Hispanic Affairs, accused the Citizens Council on Illegal Immigration of distorting the truth.

Yapias said the majority of immigrants come to the United States to work hard and gain a better life, not to commit crimes. "Groups like [the citizens council] cause a lot of fear and anxiety in the Latino community," said Yapias, who visited St. George last week to meet with Latinos.

"Everyone with dark skin is singled out [as undocumented], even those here legally."

St. George activist Rosa Maria Martinez urged community groups to become constructive partners in eliminating stereotypes and other social problems.

"It will make it a better community," said Martinez, secretary for the Latino advocacy group Hispanos Unidos in St. George and publisher of the newspaper La Voz Latina de Utah.

"We don't need another group trying to destroy what we work for."

But Larry Meyers, who heads an organizing committee for the Citizens Council on Illegal Immigration, said his group hopes to help heal divisions by tackling the issues head-on and devising productive solutions. He said about 100 residents of the St. George area have expressed interest in joining.

A former prosecutor, Meyers said he is concerned about crimes committed by Latino immigrants.

"Some are deported after being arrested," he said. "Others, who are not arrested or jailed, just pay a fine."

St. George police spokesman Craig Harding disputes that immigrants are responsible for a jump in crime.

"The people we arrest run the gamut from white to Native American to Hispanics," Harding said. "I don't know how they can attribute an increase in crime to illegal immigration. I hate to think anyone in our community thinks that some races have a predisposition to crime."

Yapias said most Utahns are more tolerant of undocumented immigrants than some members of the citizens council.

Yapias does agree, however, with Sears on at least one point: The government has to act on immigration problems or tensions will continue to grow.

"There is nothing [undocumented immigrants] can do to be here legally unless there is immigration reform, especially since 9/11," Yapias said.

"We'll have to wait until after the elections Tuesday to see if anything is done."

mhavnes@sltrib.com

Meeting tonight

The newly formed Citizens Council on Illegal Immigration will meet at 7 p.m. in the Washington County Commission Chambers in St. George.