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SALT LAKE CITY -- Immigration experts around Utah have been looking at suggestions the state create its own guest worker program, but at least one man is voicing concerns that a Utah-based system wouldn't work.
Last month, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff proposed the idea of starting a Utah-based guest worker program. He said such a program would create a legal way for immigrants to find work, so employers wouldn't feel a need to hire them illegally and workers would stop committing identity theft.
Immigration attorney Mark Alvarez says constitutionally, Utah can't overstep the federal government on immigration, and that's just the first of many problems with this plan.
"If Utah could give a guest worker type of permit, what privilege would that give the holder in any of the other 50 states? Probably none," Alvarez says. "Utah cannot pass a guest worker, temporary-worker program without the authority of the federal government."
He says the federal government would have to change policies and give Utah exceptions to run its guest worker program -- and he doesn't see that happening, since it wouldn't benefit the federal government and its immigration enforcement to have varying policies around the county.
Alvarez says another issue is a Utah guest worker program wouldn't solve the problem of those already living here without documents. He says those people would be forced to stay out of the country if they came forward to get the permit.
E-mail: rjeppesen@ksl.com
