Immigration

Endorsing a lawful approach that strengthens Utah’s economy, respects human worth, and keeps communities safe without cruelty.

The courage of "&" in immigration reform

Upholding the law does not require treating people as disposable. Effective immigration policy distinguishes between responsibility and punishment, focusing on fair processes, proportional responses, and solutions that reduce unlawful migration rather than exploiting it. The courage of “&” means a functional immigration system requires both accountability and humanity. When either is missing, the system fails. Utah should pursue policies that restore order without sacrificing our shared humanity.

Financial security

Immigration policy directly affects Utah’s financial security, from workforce stability and housing costs to tax revenue and small-business growth. Immigrants are deeply embedded in Utah’s construction, agriculture, service, healthcare, and tech sectors, and when policy creates fear or instability, businesses lose workers, productivity drops, and costs rise for everyone. Detention-focused approaches, including building new ICE facilities, are costly for taxpayers, averaging about $164.65 per detainee per day, translating to approximately $12 million spent daily across all detainees nationally, which amounts to around $4.4 billion annually. Such spending yields little economic return, merely enriching the private owners of the facilities at taxpayer expense. By contrast, policies that emphasize work authorization, due process, and community stability help keep families earning, spending locally, and contributing to Utah’s economy, strengthening financial security for all residents.

Human dignity

Human dignity means recognizing that people are more than their paperwork. Utah can enforce the law while rejecting practices that rely on intimidation, family separation, or prolonged detention without meaningful due process. Recent ICE behaviors, marked by aggressive raids, lack of transparency, and collateral harm to children and mixed-status families, undermine trust not only in immigration systems, but in government itself. Supporting human dignity means prioritizing due process, proportional enforcement, and humane treatment, and ensuring that no one is punished simply for existing, working, or raising a family in our communities.

Real solutions

Utah doesn’t need to choose between compassion and safety. We can do both more effectively.

• Reject costly detention expansion: Do not build an ICE detention facility in Utah. Evidence consistently shows detention is destabilizing to families and no more effective at ensuring compliance than community-based alternatives.
  

• Invest in proven alternatives to detention: Prioritize community-based alternatives, including supervision, legal orientation programs, and case management, that deliver high compliance at lower cost, while allowing people to work, care for families, and contribute economically.
  

• Prevent harm from unregulated federal enforcement: Recognize that unchecked federal immigration enforcement can cause greater harm than safety when left without clear limits, transparency, and accountability. ICE’s current approach relies on fear-based tactics that destabilize families, suppress crime reporting, and erode trust in public institutions, conditions that make communities less safe, not more. Utah should not allow its systems, resources, or communities to be used in ways that amplify these harms. Public safety is best served by firm boundaries, oversight, and enforcement models that are narrowly tailored, evidence-based, and humane.
  

• Protect due process and transparency: Support access to legal counsel, clear communication of rights, and oversight of enforcement practices so immigration law is applied fairly and consistently, not arbitrarily or abusively.
  

• Support Utah employers and workers: Advocate for expanded and modernized work authorization pathways that reflect Utah’s real labor needs, reduce exploitation, and level the playing field for law-abiding businesses.
  

• Strengthen local-federal boundaries: Maintain clear boundaries between local law enforcement and federal immigration enforcement to prevent the spread of fear and abuse that occurs when civil immigration actions spill into everyday public safety. Local police must be trusted protectors, so victims and witnesses feel safe reporting crimes, rather than extensions of an unregulated federal system that has shown it can cause more harm than safety when left unchecked.
  

• Partner with local communities: Work with municipalities, faith groups, employers, and service organizations to support integration, language access, and workforce participation. These solutions stabilize families and neighborhoods without scapegoating.