Gratefully, the Utah Legislature has steered clear of most immigration reforms. Likely, some of the displaced farm workers from other states, where local law enforcement has broad powers to check immigration status and access to government programs has been strictly limited, may end up here. At near full employment, Utah needs hard-working people, too.

But we have to address our illegal immigration problem. The borders need to be secured and our economy needs labor. It is not moral to benefit from their labors yet doom them to the working class by taking away educational opportunities.

As a country, we've got to move away from the "Let's-round-'em-up-and-send-'em-home," knee-jerk rhetoric. For crying out loud, we couldn't even evacuate New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, and we're going to send millions of illegal immigrants back where they came from?

Nope, they're part of us now. We've got to come up with some means to secure our borders and yet fully assimilate a population that quietly contributes a lot to our culture and our economy. So much so that states' efforts to keep them under thumb are decimating farming and ranching economies to the point that some states are starting to rely on inmate labor — outside the prison fences.

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Marjorie Cortez, who thinks the term "low-risk" inmate may be an oxymoron, is a Deseret Morning News editorial writer. E-mail: marjorie@desnews.com