Utah governor urges balance as clash over immigration intensifies

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox reaffirmed the state’s current approach to immigration as state lawmakers consider clashing proposals amid national tension over Trump administration deportation tactics.

The Republican-led Legislature has launched the 2026 general session with bills on whether to further restrict access to jobs, welfare, housing, transportation, transactions and elections for immigrants.

House majority leadership has been less vocal on the issue of immigration than they were last year, when they championed a package of bills seeking to remove obstacles for immigration authorities in Utah.

But this year House members are “getting much more pressure from the federal side to do something,” according to Rep. Trevor Lee, who is the sponsor of the immigration bills receiving the most pushback.

In an interview with the Deseret News, Utah’s governor said the state has already established a track record of immigration policies that combine public safety with strong communities — and he intends to preserve that posture.

“In Utah, we believe in two things. We believe in the rule of law, and we believe in treating everyone with dignity and respect,” Cox said. “We’ve done a good job of trying to balance those two things. We’ll continue to work to do so.”

New Utah poll on immigration

When asked to rate President Donald Trump’s first year back in office, Cox praised his action at the border. The Biden administration had told governors it could not shut down illegal crossings. “Turns out that was not true,” Cox said.

Last week, U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced that in December the agency had released zero immigrants into the country for the eighth consecutive month amid record low border encounters nationwide.

“I think with any administration, it’s been a mixed bag,” Cox said. “We needed a president who was serious about protecting our borders, and President Trump has certainly done that, and we’re grateful for his leadership there.”

Cox did not mention the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign which flooded Los Angeles, Chicago and Minneapolis with federal authorities, and resulted in a massive increase of street arrests of immigrants in Utah.

Utahns are split in half over Trump’s immigration agenda, according to the latest Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics poll, which found that 49% of registered voters approve of Trump’s handling of immigration policy, and 46% disapprove.

Party affiliation was the dominant divide: 76% of Republicans approve, including 49% who strongly approve. Meanwhile, 89% of Democrats disapprove, including 79% who strongly disapprove. Nearly two-thirds of independents also disapprove.

Deportation methods used by ICE and Border Patrol were equally polarizing: 41% of Utah voters approve and 43% disapprove. Approval among Republicans was 64%. Disapproval hit 90% among Democrats and 67% among independents.

The poll was conducted by Morning Consult between January 7-12, among a sample of 799 registered Utah voters. Results from the full survey have a margin of error of +/- 3%.

One Utah Democrat is using the legislative session to take a stand against deportation efforts.

Sen. Nate Blouin, D-Salt Lake City, has introduced a bill, SB136, that would prohibit state and local law enforcement from assisting federal immigration authorities in public libraries, government health care facilities, courts or houses of worship.

The bill would require government entities to prevent access to these “sensitive locations” for federal authorities who are conducting an immigration enforcement operation. It also creates a criminal penalty for authorities who wear facial coverings.

A more punitive approach

But most immigration-related bills this session focus on limiting state resources available to immigrants.

The largest reforms were introduced by Lee, who is sponsoring a bill, HB287, to repeal the driving privilege card program, which allows individuals who can’t prove lawful presence to legally drive in Utah after proving residency, identity and passing a driving test.

Utah became one of the first states in the nation to create such a program in 2005. Over two decades later, Utah remains the only Republican-leaning state to have a drivers license for undocumented immigrants, according to the National Immigration Law Center.

Lee also introduced legislation, HB88, that he says would prevent welfare fraud by requiring verification of lawful presence for public health immunizations, public health testing for communicable diseases, soup kitchens and homeless shelters.

The bill would also eliminate “alternative eligibility” for otherwise ineligible children to qualify for the Children’s Health Insurance Program, Lee said. This would remove benefits for roughly 1,800 individuals, according to the Department of Workforce Services.

Finally, Lee intends to introduce legislation preventing immigrants who are in the country illegally from renting or buying a home. Foreign immigration accounted for a majority of Utah growth in 2023 and 2024, and Lee said this contributes to a shortage of affordable homes.

“Stop incentivizing those who break the law when they come here,” Lee, R-Layton, told the Deseret News. “It’s only going to exacerbate the problem. It’s going to make it worse if we continue down that path.”

An AP analysis of CBP data in October found Salt Lake City was the third most common self-reported destination for immigrants from May 2023, to January 2025. Utah came in No. 7 for immigrant arrivals for every 100,000 residents — above California and Arizona.

Cox rejects the idea that Utah policies have made the state a magnet for illegal immigration. The most important factor is “proximity to the border,” Cox said. There are many “left-leaning” states that have lower immigration arrival rates, he pointed out.

While he has yet to see Lee’s bills, Cox cautioned lawmakers to consider that there are already laws banning noncitizens from public benefits, and that driving privilege cards were created to protect Utahns by enabling immigrants to get car insurance.

“It’s important for people to actually think a little bit about these things, to understand why they exist, what the purpose of them was, and then we can make better decisions,” Cox said.

Are noncitizens voting in elections?

House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, told the Deseret News his caucus will have serious discussions about “a couple of” Lee’s bills, particularly as it relates to concerns over fraud and subsidies, which Schultz said “are justified.”

Utah Senate Democrats held a press conference on Tuesday where they called Lee’s bills “horrifying,” questioned the impact on the state’s economy and decried what they said would be the impact of the bills on immigrant children.

“It really is not what Utah is about,” said Senate Minority Leader Luz Escamilla, D-Salt Lake City. “Some of these bills are pretty mean. It is, at the core, keeping kiddos without access to health care or food at school. That’s a new low level.”

Other bills being proposed by House Republicans that would impact immigrants who are in the country illegally include:

• HB136, proposed by Rep. Matt MacPherson, R-West Valley, would enable law enforcement to charge someone driving without a license with a misdemeanor, to identify them with an automated fingerprint system and to impound their vehicle.
• HB141, proposed by Rep. Stephanie Gricius, R-Eagle Mountain, would impose a 2% tax on international money transmissions for individuals that cannot provide valid identification of lawful presence in the U.S.
• HB294, proposed by Rep. Tiara Auxier, R-Morgan, would increase the number of businesses that must use E-Verify to determine the legal working status of new employees by reducing the company size threshold from 150 employees down to 50.
• Rep. Ryan Wilcox, R-Ogden, also intends to introduce a piece of legislation that would prohibit those without legal status from driving large trucks through the state, according to a House Majority spokesperson.

One immigration-related bill that already has the backing of House leadership is HB209, which would create a process for local election officials to verify the citizenship of individuals who seek to register to vote. This would create a separate process for state versus federal voter registration.

It is already illegal in Utah for noncitizens to vote. But election officials currently lack guidelines and tools to check the citizenship status of individuals. During a hearing on Wednesday, Davis County Clerk Brian McKenzie and State Elections Director Ryan Cowley both endorsed the bill.

“We know that our Utah Constitution requires a person to be a U.S. citizen in order to vote,” McKenzie said. “But we also know that we don’t want to do something that inadvertently disenfranchises a citizen of our state from voting. This bill takes both of those interests into play as it balances those out.”

The state has verified at least four instances of immigrants in the country illegally who successfully registered to vote and voted in an election before being removed from the voter rolls, Cowley said, citing information from an audit the Lieutenant Governor’s Office is conducting on noncitizens voting in Utah.