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SALT LAKE CITY -- A meeting Wednesday night between police and immigrants will take on a new meaning with the release of some new numbers.
Members of the Latino community plan to meet with the Salt Lake City police chief, representatives of several other police departments and a few state lawmakers. That meeting is open to the public and set for 7p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Latino mall near 2500 South and Redwood Road.
A new study from the Pew Hispanic Center shows Utah is still 21st in the country for undocumented workers, but we're gaining new illegal immigrants faster than anywhere else. Between 2005 and 2008, the number of undocumented workers in Utah jumped nearly 16 percent. The national growth rate for illegal immigrants over that same time frame was 7.2 percent.
But that growth rate may soon turn around. Utah Latino Community Center Executive Director Kiko Cornejo says with Senate Bill 81 coming on, there's a lot of fear. "People are afraid, they want to go back to their country. I mean, that is one of the things we are going to talk to them about in the meeting," he said.
Like several police departments that have voiced concerns that SB 81 will require them to engage in racial profiling, Cornejo says there is concern about how the new law will be enforced, even among American citizens like himself.
"Now they're going to arrest me because I am brown?" he asked.
Cornejo describes Wednesday night's meeting as a trust building session on both sides. He says undocumented workers are already afraid to reach out to police when they need help and may become more afraid without hearing from police how this new law will change their lives.
E-mail: bbruce@ksl.com
