The Utah state legislature has passed a package of immigration
bills that includes a measure similar to Arizona’s SB 1070—currently
on hold due to legal challenges—allowing police officers to check
immigration status during arrests. The package also includes a “guest
worker” measure that would give undocumented workers a permit to
live and work in Utah.
The Senate sponsor, Margaret Dayton, R-Orem, said the package was
a “Utah effort” different from Arizona’s law. Ultimately,
the Utah immigration package will continue to create division within
the working class by allowing racial profiling of immigrants and by
setting up second class “guest workers.”
The guest worker provision serves the exploitive capitalist
system. The law will allow immigrants without citizenship or legal
residency to work in Utah because it is in the financial interest of
the bosses to allow this. The law benefits the ruling class because
it makes it legal to exploit undocumented workers while still not
granting equal rights.
