Immigration reform requires understanding

OGDEN — Wesley Smith likes to read to his kids at night. Among the stories they read are Aesop's fables, those of the talking animals that come to various conclusions about life lessons.

In the story of the mice and the cat, a group of mice is trying to figure out how not to be killed by the cat.

One mouse proposes putting a bell around the cat's neck so the feline won't take them by surprise. All of the mice agree with the solution and congratulate themselves for solving the problem — until one wise mouse asks which of them will put the bell on the cat's neck.

Sure, the solution was simple in principle, says Smith, director of public policy for the Salt Lake City Chamber of Commerce, but difficult to implement with potentially disastrous consequences.

That's the same kind of caution Utah needs to take when it undertakes immigration reform, Smith told students at Weber State University on Friday.

Smith and Rep. Stephen Sandstrom, R-Orem, were invited to the university to talk about immigration, in light of the U.S. Constitution, whose signing was commemorated Friday.

The Salt Lake Chamber and Sandstrom have proposed different ways of dealing with illegal immigration in Utah.

They don't consider themselves adversaries on the issue. Instead, they recognize they are each attacking illegal immigration from different vantage points.

Sandstrom's bill focuses on enforcement and would allow police to question a person's immigration status if police have a lawful reason to contact that person. His example is that of a driver who runs a red light and is pulled over.

An officer could question the driver's status, but not that of anyone else in the vehicle, unless the officer has reason to suspect human trafficking is taking place.

Sandstrom says his bill is based on Arizona's immigration law, but it doesn't include sections that have been blocked by a judge. He said he thinks his bill is constitutional and won't be challenged by the federal government like Arizona's law was.

"This bill is not creating a new law," Sandstrom said. "All we're doing is enforcing current federal law." That's no different from enforcing federal laws dealing with child pornography, drugs or bank robbery, he said.