Deanna Dee-Dee Taylor

As the issue on laws aimed at immigrants continues, Utah students also continue their protests as part of a week of rallies at several schools in Utah and across the nation.

In the Deseret News Article today, Utah Governor Huntsman states:
Thursday, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. said there has to be some way for those undocumented workers to become citizens. He and other Western governors have proposed reform that that would give those “living in the shadows” a pathway toward citizenship.
“You can’t simply wish people away. I think that is unrealistic,” Huntsman said during the taping of his monthly press conference on KUED Channel 7. “When you say, ‘Let’s simply send people back to their home,’ well, where is their home?

But then Alex Segura, director of the anti-illegal immigration group Utah Minuteman Project and a West Valley candidate for the state House of Representatives,
acknowledged the students’ First Amendment rights. But he said protests across the country seem to be “intimidation tactics” aimed at keeping Congress from enforcing immigration laws.
“They’re misguided about what it means to be American,” Segura said. Of their Mexican flags and Spanish chants, he said, “It means they are proud of their country and feel that this is part of Mexico.”

Students don’t see it that way.
“It’s not fair. We come here to work, and they just want to kick us out,” Gallegos said. “We are the economy of the U.S.”

Earlier this week I wrote a post about Utah students demonstrating against proposed immigration laws. The demonstrations continue as the U.S. Senate began the debate yesterday on a bill that in general is designed to strengthen enforcement of U.S. borders, regulate the flow into the country of so-called guest workers and determine the legal future of the illegal population scattered across all 50 states.

The debate is centered around whether or not illegal immigrants would be given “too much amnesty”.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, voted against the bill in the Senate Judiciary Committee, even though it contained language that would grant in-state tuition to undocumented students, something he introduced himself in a previous bill.
Hatch said there were “many things I like about the bill” but it essentially grants amnesty, which he does not support, and it contains too many provisions he felt would hurt small businesses.

Funny how Hatch focuses only on business and doesn’t say how the bill would affect people.

I am reminded that the United States of America was founded by “illegal immigrants”. Native Americans did not give permission for immigrants to visit and stay on their land. In fact native americans welcomed these immigrants with open arms. I guess it’s been way too long for our “leaders” to consider the historical facts – that their ancestors were once illegal immigrants who were “granted amnesty” in a foreign land so that they could pursue better opportunities.