Religion of immigrants

As legislators consider new ways of making immigrant life in Utah even tougher (SB81), it might be interesting for them to recall, if they ever knew, that Utah owes its existence to immigrants. During the height of Mormon settlement here in the last half of the 19th century, 70 percent of Utah's population came from outside the United States, according to former LDS Church historian Leonard Arrington.

It's odd how a state made by immigrants now wants to turn on them. Are today's poor arrivals from south of the border any poorer or less promising or more potentially problematic than the folks who came out West by handcart? The poor of Brigham Young's day couldn't even afford even a beat-up, secondhand wagon, and many could not speak English.

What we think of as the quintessential American religion is, in fact, the religion of immigrants.

Ed Firmage Jr.

Salt Lake City