Wall Street Journal, New York Times analyze Utah's immigration approach

The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times over the weekend spotlighted Utah's multifaceted approach to immigration reform.

In a Wall Street Journal article titled "Utah Seeks a Better Way on Illegal Immigration," editorial writer Jason Riley outlined the main points of HB116. If enacted, the bill will allow illegal aliens who are already living in Utah to apply for a temporary work permit in exchange for paying a fine of up to $2,500. Immigrants would have to pass a criminal background check to qualify.

The Utah House of Representatives passed the bill, sponsored by Rep. Bill Wright, R-Holden, and pushed through with considerable lobbying from Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, Friday with a 41-32 vote. The bill also proposes imposing penalties on businesses for not verifying the legal status of employees and requiring local police to check the immigration status of people detained or arrested for felonies and class A misdemeanors. It is now awaiting the governor's signature.

While other states, led by Arizona, are "keen on deputizing police officers as border agents" and "burdening business owners with more regulations," Riley wrote, Utah is letting "market forces determine the level of foreign labor in the state work force."

"Apparently, there are still some conservative lawmakers left who, in the tradition of Ronald Reagan, don't abandon free-market principles in favor of reactionary populism when the topic turns to immigration," he wrote.

Some have labeled the approach as an amnesty program, but Riley argues that fighting illegal immigration by giving foreign nationals greater access to jobs is a historically proven method.

In the 1940s, Texas and California, in response to agricultural labor shortages, pressured the federal government to start the Bracero Program, which allowed hundreds of thousands of Mexican farm workers into the country as seasonal workers.

"As the program was expanding in the postwar years to meet the labor needs of a growing U.S. economy, illegal border crossings dropped dramatically," Riley wrote. "Between 1953 and 1959, illegal immigration from Mexico fell by 95 percent. A 1980 Congressional Research Service report notes that, 'without question,' the Bracero Program 'was instrumental in ending the illegal alien problem of the mid-1940s and 1950s.'"

In Riley's opinion, if the state pairs a guest worker program with some type of "stepped-up enforcement" measure, it has history "on their side."