When the Mexican consul for Utah says he can't give his opinion on immigration, it feels a little like your neighbor sending his in-laws to live with you but refusing to discuss it.

The consul is arriving at a time when conflict among our citizens over immigration is reaching a boiling point. With the rising influx of undocumented Mexican immigrants, it can only get worse. Though there is public outcry over "illegal" immigration and growing resentment against Mexicans, no elected state leader or business seems willing to discuss it except our governor.

As the representative of the Mexican government, the consul is expected to help find solutions to the problems Utahns have regarding "illegal" immigration. He faces a tough stay if he is unable to talk about it. He says it's not his job to give an opinion about immigration because it's political. He sees his mission as that of taking care of Mexicans who live here.

Wouldn't that include taking care of the most pressing problem they face? How does he plan to help them? How will he deal with the growing resentment over people whose only crime is to cross the border illegally to feed their families?

If his mission is to look after the interest of "his countrymen," one wonders what kind of services he will provide. Will it be services only for the business community in the form of culture, arts and business ventures rather than helping to solve the growing problem that illegal immigration is for our state? Will he be able to: help immigrants obtain affordable health care, rather than wait for a crisis that lands them in an emergency clinic; help them pay for prenatal care rather than delivering infants with critical needs; help them with the education of their children who have to attend overcrowded and underfunded schools; help them obtain jobs that pay a living wage so they don't have to hold two or three jobs that keep them from spending time raising their children; help stop their abuse and exploitation at the hands of indiscriminate employers, crooked business people and slumlords? These are the disparities and hardships "his people" endure and the unfair costs that Utah communities bear.

While he is not expected to solve these immigration problems by himself, he is expected to be forthright in acknowledging and working to solve them. The Mexican government seems content to have its people leave their land; after all, the money they send back is one of Mexico's major economic generators. It seems to be encouraging poor Mexicans to leave their country and even provides them with a "Guide for the Mexican Immigrant" on how to get to, and make it, in the United States.

Utahns expect him to tell them what Mexico is planning to do to stop the flow of immigrants risking their lives to come to the United States illegally. He ought to help them to hold their heads high with dignity and receive the respect many of us fought to gain in the civil rights movement.