Skip to main content

Utah Attorney General appears to put the interests of illegal aliens ahead of Utah children

On May 26, while deploring the new Arizona law on illegal immigration, Attorney General Mark Shurtleff told radio talk show host, Doug Wright that Utah could step up and exercise state’s rights by deciding who gets visas in Utah.

This would be accomplished by working with the Mexican government and employers to issue Utah’s own temporary guest worker visas. According to Shurtleff, “That’s what we need to be talking about. Not this punish, punish - treat people differently.”

On June 28, the Salt Lake Tribune reported that Shurtleff is working with officials in Utah and Mexico to create a Utah-specific guest-worker pilot program as an alternative to the passage of an Arizona type bill in Utah.  

Advocates for Utah’s children who are the victims of illegal alien identity theft expressed skepticism about the Attorney General’s motives and pointed out that he appears to consistently put the interests of illegal aliens and of Mexico ahead of Utah’s children and the people who elected him to protect and defend them and their families.

These child advocates point out that in 2005, Attorney General Shurtleff’s office brought the problem of illegal aliens using the Social Security numbers of Utah children to get jobs to the attention of Utahns  and the nation.

According to the Attorney General’s Press release: "The ongoing investigation has uncovered an alarming new crime spree involving illegal aliens and identities stolen from victims under the age of 12.”

"Identity thieves are no respecters of age. They will steal your children's ID, ruin their credit and hurt them in ways never thought possible before they can graduate from grade school," says Attorney General Mark Shurtleff. "Children are vulnerable even if parents do everything right."

However, since then, the Attorney General has given thousands of illegal aliens using false documents and stolen identities virtual immunity leading some to label Utah a sanctuary state.

Just a year after speaking up for the Utah Children who are victims of illegal alien identity theft, the Attorney General appeared at large illegal immigration rallies and, according to KSL-TV, he told illegal aliens present, “Many of my fellow Republicans will criticize me for being here. They'll tell me instead of speaking to you, that as the chief law enforcement of Utah I should be arresting you. [That's] not going to happen."

During the same rallies, the Deseret News reported that Shurtelff said, in Spanish, that he is not Latino, but his heart is. "These folks believe in America and they believe in free speech," Shurtleff told the Deseret Morning News. "They have not had a voice. They have a voice here today."

According to a Deseret News profile, “Shurtleff also has cultivated strong ties to the Latino community because he has been sympathetic to the plight of illegal aliens. He has weighed in on various issues, such as allowing the children of illegals to have drivers' licenses and to pay in-state college tuition.”

In 2006, Shurtleff received Mexico's Order of the Aztec Eagle Award, that nation's highest honor for foreigners who serve Mexico or humanity.

Shurtleff has limited his enforcement actions against illegal aliens largely to those who commit violent crimes and who manufacture false documents. He has, however, consistently failed to take concerted action against the tens of thousands of illegal aliens who are committing job-related identity theft in spite of the fact that they are literally ruining the good names and the futures of tens of thousands of innocent and vulnerable Utah children.

Comments

  • Darlene K 4 years ago

    Boooo . . . You suck. You r NOT an AMERICAN when u put needs of illegals before U.S. CITIZEN. You should be deported to MEXICO & stay there!!!!! Since u feel they r better then our own USA Children. SHAME ON YOU!!!!!

  • Mary Johnson Muna 4 years ago

    You should be ashamed. Illegal immigrants are scattering now to Utah, Colorado and New Mexico. I hope you get your fair share. Now that they are leaving Arizona, self respecting American citizens may once again feel safe to retire in Arizona to the great climate there. I would never live in Utah anyway. Let the illegals have it.

  • Trent Larson 4 years ago

    Sorry, but I appreciate Shurtleff's creativity. We need some other solution that actually encourages legality, not merely the proposed approaches to simply lock down borders and accept the arbitrary laws imposed by Washington DC. The federal government has made it incredibly difficult to immigrate, despite the fact that immigration has always been a great source of our growth.

    I believe every one of us has broken a law making us illegal in some way; should we all be arrested for ridiculous laws? The get-tough laws are already affecting law-abiding citizens and businesses. I would rather work through the difficulties than continue to oppress ourselves just to try and catch everyone who crosses a border.

  • Jesse 4 years ago

    “Many of my fellow Republicans will criticize me for being here. They'll tell me instead of speaking to you, that as the chief law enforcement of Utah I should be arresting you. [That's] not going to happen."

    He told the exact same thing to a group of polygamists in Utah.
    It will be interesting to see which group of law-breakers are next.

  • Estoban 4 years ago

    @ Trent Larson
    On what basis do you claim that Federal laws are arbitrary or ridiculous? If you only recognize your own judgement that would make you an anarchist. America became powerful because the great majority believe in the rule of law. Those that don't fill our jails. Every illegal alien that holds an American job has committed a felony as well as stolen a paycheck from an unemployed American worker and his/her family.

  • xray 4 years ago

    There's a big question in my mind here. I think Shurtlef is pushing an very unconstitutional law here. Naturalization power rests with the federal government (Article I Section 8) as does the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations (also in Article I Section 8). Arizona's law only enforces established federal law and does not attempt to alter, nullify, or make new law. Shurtleff, on the other hand, is proposing to do exactly that (and violate two provisions of the Constitution).

    It looks like besides pushing Utah to some type of sanctuary State, he's also going to violate Constitutional law to do so. That doesn't seem to be a great thing to do when you're supposed to be the State's "top law enforcement officer".

  • Trent Larson 4 years ago

    @Estoban My basis for judging that the federal government has bad immigration laws is threefold:

    - The experience of friends who have come here legally and endured the unfair, expensive system on their long road to becoming "legal" in the eyes of the feds.

    - The analysis and judgement of reporters and even federal politicians who themselves admit that the system is flawed. In particular, news over the last 9 years shows that more and more talented people are reluctant to come to the land "of the free" because of the bad system.

    - My own research. The laws are complicated, and they divide families.

    I'm open to other information.

    Our immigration policies need to be fixed, not used as an platform to declare more people illegal and then punish ourselves with more government restrictions like E-Verify. (Since when does government have the right to allow or disallow me the right to gain employment?! OK, I'll stop ranting now.)

    I invite everyone to help fix the fundamenta

  • Teofil 4 years ago

    Mark Sureleft Liberal, Get your stinking ass to work for American Citizens that elected you. It's called mass-immigration, which us citizens of The United States of America object to. It would be cheaper and more fair to us if they were deported by bus fulls than keeping on paying their way(food stamps, anchor babies, health care, pre-natal care, etc...) Ship her back before another anchor is apparently put down. The American citizens are not separating the families, they are! Do the job you were elected to do or put it on the ballot.

  • Teofil 4 years ago

    I don't have any of my own children, but I want to see my country be "United" with everybody being able to communicate with one another. My nieces and nephews and my friends children deserve to grow up in their own country without having to be challenged by unnecessary challenges and changes of multiple languages. The problem we are currently facing is coming out of Mexico so it would only be fair to implement Mexico's immigration laws here and now.