Jacob friends avoided 'easy' illegal route

Silva said he was introduced to Jacob by officials with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Silva had gone to them for help when he ran into financial trouble. Silva said he and his wife never worked for Jacob.

Silva said Jacob worked with immigration attorneys to legally pay his tuition and fees and to help out with living expenses, he said. Jacob refused to allow the Silvas to pay him back, instead telling the couple to help someone else in need. So, the couple did volunteer work, Silva said, like helping out with chores.

"I always knew he was helping me. By my integrity, I had to pay this back," Silva said. "I didn't want to abuse the good will of people."

And, Silva said, he and his family kept their word to Jacob to remain legal, even when it meant leaving the country.

Silva recalled his youngest daughter's decision to return to Chile after graduating from high school and to apply for a student visa. It may have been easier, he said, for her to become illegal so she could take advantage of a Utah law allowing undocumented students to pay in-state tuition at college.

She was devastated when her application for a student visa was initially denied after she had difficulty proving she had not lived illegally in the United States. But she finally obtained a student visa.

"We struggled to keep our status legal," Silva said. "It's pretty easy to be illegal . . . very easy."

Given Jacob's stand on illegal immigration, Brigham Young University political scientist Quin Monson said the allegations can only hurt the candidate, who has criticized Cannon's support of comprehensive immigration reform — including a way for many illegal immigrants to earn legal status.

"The first thing he needs to do is answer all the questions," Monson said. "When there are still remaining questions about illegality, and who did what with the finances of the company, and what (the immigrants) did as far as work — that leads people to assume the worst, or to assume there's something."

Alex Segura, director of the anti-illegal immigration group Utah Minuteman Project, acknowledged the situation is "a little disturbing," though he still backs Jacob.

"Jacob is still, character-wise, someone I would support, even if what he did isn't exactly the way I would go about it," Segura said. "I hope he learned his lesson."

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Editor's note: Joe Cannon, the brother of Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, is a member of the Board of Directors of the Deseret Morning News.

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E-mail: dbulkeley@desnews.com