Commentary: I’m a Salt Lake businessman and I believe we need the Dream Act

I grew up in Salt Lake City and I know how great this community is. Over generations, my family has been active in local real estate, mining, transportation and petroleum exploration and production. I currently own the Salt Lake, Garfield & Western Railway, a short line railroad; help run a company that harvests a specialized aquaculture feed product from the Great Salt Lake; and serve on the board of directors of the zoo that bears my family’s name.

Over the years, I have encountered many undocumented immigrants in my work, and I now employ an extraordinary young person who’s a recipient of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. The program allows young immigrants who came to this country as children to get temporary permission to work and reside here. Since President Trump terminated the DACA program, my employee has been worried that after her DACA expires this summer, she will lose her ability to work and potentially be deported.

I am writing now to ask Utah’s members of Congress — especially our Salt Lake City congressman, Chris Stewart — to use their power as our representatives to immediately pass the Dream Act, a bill that would give undocumented young people who came to the United States as children a path to citizenship. I don’t want to lose my employee and see her thrown out of the country. Losing people like her is bad for Utah’s economy and bad for Salt Lake City.

I’m not an especially political person, but I believe that when our employees, our colleagues and our neighbors are at risk of being torn from our community — when they have followed all the rules, and after they have voluntarily given all their personal information to the government — we must speak up. It’s up to each of us to fight for them, not only because we need them to keep our economy functioning, but because they are our people.

I ask you, Congressman Stewart, to fight for your constituents and your constituency to keep us whole. Please pass the Dream Act. I ask you for my employee’s sake, but also for all of our sakes, as Americans who believe in fairness and who love this community.

Undocumented workers are a fact of life in Utah. The bottom line is this economy cannot thrive without them, our ranchers and farmers rely on them and, if you pull the rug out from under businesses and deport them, the economy is going to freeze up. The children of these undocumented workers are a new generation offering energy and hard work, and Utah has 9,700 young people with DACA.

Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams has predicted a “human tragedy” if Congress does not come up with a solution for these young immigrants by the end of the year. Many Utah leaders and I also predict an economic crash. Some 91 percent of Utah DACA recipients over 16 are working and, overall, they contribute more than $22 million in taxes each year. The reality is that our economy needs people with DACA.

My employee has been with me for years, and I developed a friendship and trust in her. We talk often about her trials and tribulations and I imagine it would be devastating for her to be separated from her two young children, who were born here. I know how difficult it would be for me if I had to find someone else to fill her role. She’s a smart young woman, resourceful and aware, and it’s hard to find people as competent as she is.

This has got to stop. Rounding people up and deporting them despite the fact they are following the rules, they have U.S. citizen children, and they are contributing to our community — it’s not the American way, and it’s not what our immigration laws were set up to do. Congressman Stewart, please take responsibility for this and fix this problem. Do not let us lose good young people Utah needs.

Patrick Hogle is a local business owner and board member for the Hogle Zoo.