Utah’s mostly Republican Governor, Spencer Cox, says he will help the Trump administration deport criminal migrants — but not illegal economic migrants — yet several Latino activist groups are still lashing out over his plans.
Cox released a lengthy statement on Tuesday detailing the efforts his administration is prepared to make in cooperation with President Trump’s plans to deport millions of illegal migrants.
The GOP governor told constituents that Utah would assist the incoming Trump administration with a “joint effort by the Utah Department of Public Safety and the Utah Department of Corrections to enhance coordination with federal, state and local partners” to “identify, incarcerate and deport” illegal migrants who had committed crimes.”
“When it comes to immigration policy, the safety of Utah residents is my top priority,” the governor said in his statement.
He continued:
Utah will continue to welcome refugees and immigrants who enter the country lawfully, and we will continue pushing for reforms to the asylum process and for more visas to support our workforce needs. We have zero tolerance, however, for those who demonstrate a threat to public safety while in the country illegally. Federal immigration authorities have failed in their duty to the American people and they’ve left states and localities to independently manage the fallout of those failures. We’re grateful to have an administration coming in who will take these problems seriously.
Cox’s statement added that the cost of the federal government’s failure to secure the border has grown exponentially during the Biden years, costing the state $16 million per year just for the immigrants in the state’s prisons alone.
The costs are dear in other areas, too. Drug trafficking has grown, drug-related crime has risen, and drug overdoses have soared. A look at numbers tracking overdose deaths reported by the Utah Office of the Medical Examiner back in September found a 16.7% increase in drug overdose deaths from April 1, 2023, to March 31, 2024, compared to April 1, 2022, to March 2023, according to Deseret News.
Like most other states, Utah law enforcement officials have also reported a rise in activity by the dangerous Venezuelan street gang, Tren de Aragua, the presence of which has grown thanks to Joe Biden’s loose immigration policies for Venezuelans.
Despite all this, Latino activist groups in the Beehive State are blasting Cox for his plans to help the Trump administration send millions of illegal aliens back home.
The left-wing nonprofit Comunidades Unidas [United Communities], for one, quickly put out a statement railing at Cox and saying they are “deeply disappointed and outraged” at the governor’s plans.
“We believe in the liberation of all immigrants, and, therefore, we will not criminalize any member of our community,” Comunidades Unidas said. “We will not trade the freedom of some members of our community for that of others.”
The NGO went on to blast Cox, saying his rhetoric will “perpetuate harmful stereotypes that erode trust between our communities and local leadership.”
“Governor Cox’s statements threaten to further marginalize and dehumanize the broader immigrant community,” the group continued, “which is both unacceptable and inhumane.”
“For too long, immigrants have been used as scapegoats for political gain. This approach does not foster safety or unity – it instills fear and division,” the group said.
“We will continue to fight and defend the human rights of our community. We believe that no human being is illegal and everyone deserves to live without fear,” they wrote.
Another Utah activist, Jose “Chelin” Guevara, director of the nonprofit Capitan Zarigüeya, criticized the “generalization” he fears that Cox is perpetrating against migrants.
“It is essential to condemn migrants involved in serious crimes. However, the fight against crime should not extend to the generalization of immigration status, since this could reinforce negative stereotypes for those who comply with the law,” Guevara said in a statement, according to The Salt Lake Tribune.
For his part, Antonio Valbuena, director of the Bridges21 initiative, warned that Cox was fueling “xenophobia and fear in legal migration,” and “creating a hostile environment without distinction of legal status.”
Business owners seeking the cheap labor from the immigrant community also spoke out after the governor’s statement. Jorge Fierro, founder of Rico Brand foods, warned Cox against “perturbing” immigrant families.
“Don’t perturb those families who, for whatever reason, decided to come to this country seeking and looking for a better life.” Fierro exclaimed. “Let’s make sure [Utah] doesn’t pinpoint every single immigrant as a criminal,” before adding that Cox should be “clear” that he is only targeting criminals.
“Concentrate on the [criminal] population only, nobody else,” Fierro added. “I hope that the governor can be assertive enough to get the job done without affecting people who really don’t have anything to do with crime whatsoever.”
Regardless of the criticism that he is painting with a broad brush, Cox tried to walk a thin line by trying to make a distinction between the “criminals” he hopes to deport and the migrants he says Utah needs more of.
Cox has often moved to offer perks and assistance to migrants since being elected governor in 2021. Indeed, just last year he noted how proud he was to sign legislation that bestowed breaks on migrants for in-state college tuition.
He has also insisted that he wants more immigrants, not fewer, and said, “We do need more immigrants in our country. We have so many job openings right now in the state of Utah and other places that cannot be filled.”
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