A comment about Utah’s “We’re not Arizona” approach to immigration

by David Safier

I'm presenting this without comment or judgement, because I don't know anything about the source, but I find it to be interesting commentary on the Mormon Church, conservative politics and immigration.

The writer is Joanna Brooks on the Religion Dispatches Magazine blog. She describes herself as someone who "grew up in a conservative Mormon home in the orange groves of Orange County, California. Now, she's an award winning American religion scholar and writer."

Brooks is writing about the contrast between the anti-immigrant politics of Russell Pearce, who is Mormon, and a different sensibility which is arising among many church members.

These moves [to support more moderate views on immigration] have been viewed as an effort by the Church distance itself from the hard-line tactics instituted by SB 1070 author Russell Pearce (R), who is LDS. Last summer, Latino Mormons in Arizona publicly raised their voices to decry SB 1070 as a contradiction to core tenets of the faith, including the Mormon emphasis on the sanctity of the family.

Some sources credit the large number of LDS men and women who have served missions in Latin America with creating greater empathy among Utah Mormons towards Latino immigrants. (A recent statewide poll found that 71% of Utah residents supported the guest worker permit provisions of the new law.) It is estimated that 50-75% (or more) of LDS Church members attending Spanish-speaking congregations in Utah are undocumented workers.  Some sources suggest that Latinos make up the largest proportion of converts to the LDS Church in the US.

LDS Church members report changes they’ve seen on the ground in the way the Church has moved over the last decade from counseling members in Mexico against immigration to adopting the equivalent of a “don’t ask don’t tell policy” on matters of immigration status in the United States. As I've written before here at RD, I see this as evidence that the LDS Church is showing a willingness to move away from the ultraconservative and nationalistic politics that have defined its multigenerational ethnic core as it embraces its global future.