Salt Lake. Latinos meet with Burbank, Becker

Whether it was to voice their concerns, or just learn more about the issue, close to 200 members of Salt Lake City's Latino community showed up for an emergency meeting Thursday evening to discuss Utah's controversial new immigration law, SB81.

The Centro Civico Mexicano was full when the meeting started at 6 p.m., and despite the short notice, both Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker and Salt Lake Police Chief Chris Burbank were there.

"By the chief and the mayor coming, it says everything about the commitment they have to our community," Proyecto Latino de Utah director Tony Yapias said. "When have we ever heard a chief of police say, 'This law is going to violate the civil rights of a community'? We haven't. This has not happened before."

Yapias said that it was important for he and other leaders in the Latino community to organize a meeting like this in order to show support for Burbank and Becker.

Burbank has said his department will not deputize officers for immigration enforcement, which is one of the voluntary parts of the new law set to take effect in July. Doing so would essentially mean officers would be racially profiling the population, and innocent people would be afraid of seeking help for fear of deportation, he said.

The sponsor of the legislation has threatened sanctions against the city. Becker is backing Burbank's stance.

Yapias said he hoped other police chiefs throughout the valley feel the same way that Burbank does.

One citizen posed that very question of Burbank during the meeting. While he said he could only speak for himself, he said he feels like the majority of the chiefs in the valley have similar views as he does.

"How can you ask a law enforcement officer to make important decisions based on citizenship when all you have to go on is their color of skin and the language they speak?" Burbank said after the meeting. "That just reeks of racial profiling and bias in law enforcement, and we have no room for that in our profession."

The crowd heard from many different leaders in the Latino community, including Yapias, Archie Archuleta of the Utah Coalition of La Raza, state Sen. Luz Robles, University of Utah associate vice president for diversity Octavio Villalpando and many more.

At one point, Yapias asked how many of the people were considering leaving Utah because of the new law and several people raised their hands. But many of the same people once again raised their hands when he asked if the meeting had helped change their minds.

For Demetrio Soto, a Utah resident since 1993, hearing from Burbank and other leaders was very important.