Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff says punitive illegal immigration measures than have taken effect in states like Arizona, Georgia and Alabama are knee-jerk, extreme reactions to a delicate and complicated issue. As KCPW’s Whittney Evans reports, Shurtleff told the first-ever Mountain West Immigration Summit he hosted today that states need to forge a consensus on comprehensive, humane and economically-sound immigration reform.
Business, law enforcement, faith and government leaders will gather in Utah tomorrow to discuss immigration in the Mountain West Immigration Summit hosted by Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff.
Hairs were split at the State Capitol this morning when licensed cosmetologists filled a committee room to protest a potential bill that would remove the license requirement for braiding hair in Utah. Right now, a person must obtain a cosmetology license.
The U.S. Supreme Court has made it clear that criminal defendants who can’t afford a lawyer must be provided one by the court. But a new report from the ACLU of Utah says the state is woefully lacking in both providing funding and oversight of its public defender system, and that means indigent defendants aren’t getting justice.
Republican Representative Stephen Sandstrom is known as the sponsor of a highly controversial new illegal immigration law, currently tied up in federal court. And he’s pondering a run for Congress in 2012. He joined us to talk about the future of that law and his political plans.
In a special session last week, the Utah Legislature weighed in on the current debt ceiling crisis by passing another resolution urging Congress to pass a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. But it got no support from a clearly frustrated Democratic caucus in the Utah House of Representatives.
The Utah Chapter of the American Civil liberties Union says the Salt Lake County Jail is illegally holding suspected illegal immigrants. The group filed suit against the jail, saying it violates the due process rights of detainees by keeping them locked up regardless of bail, so federal agents can check their immigration status. But as KCPW’s Whittney Evans reports, Salt Lake County Sherriff Jim Winder says the ACLU aiming that arrow at the wrong target.
A group of activists and state lawmakers rallied Wednesday afternoon during a special session of the legislature in support of repealing the guest worker law passed during the 2011 session. Brandon Beckham, who helped lead the effort to pass resolutions at the county and state GOP conventions, says the bill had warning signs from the start. He says those who voted for the bill and Governor Gary Herbert are traitors who will be held accountable in the 2012 election.
Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz continues to be a rising star in the GOP, getting more and more attention as he moves to closer to announcing a run against Utah Senator Orrin Hatch in 2012. We talked with Chaffetz about his political plans, the debt ceiling debate, Afghanistan and more.
Utah’s congressional delegation is derelict on immigration. That’s the exact message sent by an op-ed from Utah House Speaker Becky Lockhart that was recently published by the Daily Herald in Provo. Her opinion piece mentions all five of Utah’s federal Representatives and Senators by name, taking them to task for what she believes is an abdication of their responsibility to do something about immigration reform.
