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SALT LAKE CITY — Gov. Spencer Cox applauded some portions of a federal program that allow some Latin American migrants into the country on humanitarian grounds, but had little to say about Utah's lawsuit to halt the program during his monthly press conference Thursday.
The governor has taken a middle-of-the-road approach on immigration in the past, calling the issue one of the country's "easiest" problems. His recents moves on immigration have included unequivocally telling Dreamers, children who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children, that they belong in the U.S. and endorsing legislation to support permanent legal residency for Afghan refugees.
Members of Utah's Venezuelan community have criticized the state's involvement in a lawsuit with 19 other Republican states. The lawsuit seeks to halt the Biden administration's humanitarian parole program for migrants from Haiti, Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela that are fleeing turmoil in their home countries.
"I'd love to get away from the lawsuits," Cox said Thursday. "But until we get people working together and broader consensus on that, some of this will play out in the courts."
Cox's office previously declined to comment on the lawsuit, instead referring questions to the Utah Attorney General's Office, which filed the lawsuit.
"Utah is not suing the administration because we are anti-immigrant. We want as many people of good will from other nations to come legally and enjoy the liberties and opportunities my own father was blessed to have when he came to this country" the Utah Attorney General's Office said in a press release last month.
The humanitarian parole program — which required migrants to pass security screenings and have a financial sponsor in the U.S. — allows migrants to apply from their countries of origin. Paired with tighter security at the border, the program drastically cut the number of migrants attempting to cross the southern border.
"I do need to give some credit to the president and the administration for some of the changes that they're implementing now when it comes to asylum seekers," Cox said. "Having them apply from their country of origin instead of making their way to the border or having them apply for it in the first country that they come to outside of their country — there is some data that shows that it is making a difference and will keep people from making that very dangerous and arduous trek across Mexico and then trying to get across the border illegally, which we don't want to see."
Cox added that he discussed securing the border and fixing legal immigration with President Joe Biden during a trip to Washington last week.
"We still have some serious disagreements about the border and about how to do this the correct way," he said. "You'll be seeing an op-ed from myself and the governor of Indiana, a good friend of mine, about immigration and how this is something we should be able to work together to fix."
