SALT LAKE CITY — Five empty seats belonging to the absent Utah congressional delegation drew much of the attention Thursday at a summit to discuss potential federal solutions for illegal immigration issues.
"They were all invited, but all said they were out of town," said Michael Picardi, co-founder of the Coalition of Utah Progressives. The coalition organized the summit with several Latino groups at Centro Civico Mexicano.
"Personally, this tells me they don't want to take responsibility," Picardi said. "This needs to be solved on the federal level, and these guys don't want to come talk about it."
But not many other people came, either. The summit had 11 speakers and an audience of only 30 people. Latino leaders had hoped holding the summit would create a push for federal solutions instead of tough state-level bills they worry could make life difficult for Latinos, whether they are legal or illegal immigrants.
But the absent congressional delegation still irked the small number of people who did attend.
"We did not schedule this during an open session of Congress but during a break," said Ernie Gamonal, a vice president of the Hispanic Democratic Caucus. "It is very telling that our five-member Congress delegation … did not see fit to sit at the table with us."
August is when members of Congress take vacations and work in their home states.
"The solution has to be at the federal level," said Antonella Packer, with the Latin American Chamber of Commerce. "Whatever we do at the state level will be a Band-Aid. … It is heartbreaking that the congressional delegation is absent at the table when we need their voice."
John Florez, a former deputy assistant secretary of labor in the George H.W. Bush administration and a Deseret News columnist, said a "national policy" is at issue, and passing state-level laws "is just treating a symptom."
"Where does our delegation stand?" Florez asked. "Where is the leadership?"
The summit organizers also invited political opponents of the congressional delegation, and three long-shot Democratic candidates accepted and spoke.
"I'm Morgan Bowen, and my opponent not sitting over there is Rob Bishop," Bowen said amid laughs pointing at the empty seat of Rep. Bishop, R-Utah.
Also appearing were Democrat Sam Granato, running for Sen. Bob Bennett's seat against Republican Mike Lee; and Democrat Karen Hyer, running against Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah.
Granato said immigration is not a "states-rights issue" and should be solved by Congress. He said he's saddened by bitter debates on the issue.
"We have so much bias and so much misunderstanding that I want to get in, roll up my sleeves and bring this country and this state back together," Granato said.
"It should be the top priority for the federal government to pass smart immigration reform immediately," Hyer said.
Bowen said Congress should also re-evaluate the North American Free Trade Agreement. He said it destroyed subsistence farming in Mexico, leading many former farmers to immigrate illegally to seek jobs in the United States. Federal immigration laws and quotas were never revised to reflect changes in the global economy, Bowen said, and that must be done now to solve the problem.
Meanwhile, Bishop John Wester of the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City called for comprehensive reform on the federal level that does not "target the immigrants, including the undocumented immigrants," but seeks "to target the system that is really at fault here."
Frank Cordova, president of Centro Civico Mexicano, said, "I hope at some point soon we'll become united as a state, as a nation, to put pressure on Congress in a united effort instead of fighting with each other, and ask them to please, please pass a reform of immigration that everyone can live with."
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