LDS Church Inviting Illegals To Utah

As Robert Conquest is famous for observing: "The simplest way to explain the behavior of any bureaucratic organization is to assume that it is controlled by a cabal of its enemies." 

    From Breitbart: "Utah in Uproar as Mormon Church Pulls in Thousands of Migrants." I had noted recently that Denver had angered the governor of Utah for shipping illegals from Colorado to Utah. Now the Utah governor has learned (or, more likely, is finally complaining) that "The Mormon Church — officially the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) — is quietly welcoming thousands of migrants sent to Utah from overcrowded Denver, Colorado, despite public protests by state and local elected officials." The article further relates:

    Utah has suffered under the arrival of thousands of cast-off border crossers sent its way by officials in Denver, but even as the state has no resources for migrants, the Mormon Church is quietly welcoming them, causing the public burden to magnify.

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    Despite all the proclamations from elected officials that Utah is not a “sanctuary state,” the Mormon Church is undermining the lack of official sanctuary status by using its own vast resources to welcome illegals into the state by the thousands and working with non-profits and non-governmental organizations to cater to the migrants.

    The church has been outspoken in support of left-wing immmigration policies and has, for instance, announced support for the Utah Compact, which demands federal reform of policy with an eye toward keeping families together and extending “compassion” to migrants, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.

    The church has also directed meeting houses to serve as migrant centers and shifted an unreported amount of church funding to the care of illegals.

    LDS officials have been issuing statements in support of illegal immigrants for years, as well. As far back as 2018, the church criticized federal policies that tend to remove children from their parents when families illegally cross the border.

    In 2021, the LDS also stepped up its services for illegals as part of its “Immigrant Services Initiative.”

    So, while the state government races to assure voters that Utah is not a sanctuary state, the most powerful institution in the state is working at cross purposes with official proclamations, nullifying the politicians’ claims that illegals have no place in Utah.

    In a 2011 article entitled "The Mormon Church and Illegal Immigration," Ronald Mortensen of the Center for Immigration Studies noted that historically the Church had told its foreign (i.e., non-U.S.) members to stay in their own countries and build up the Church there, rather than immigrate to the United States. In addition, the Church's 12th Article of Faith (a compilation of basic tenets of the Church) reads, “We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.” Thus, members have traditionally had a great deal of respect for civil authorities and civil laws. The article notes, for instance (footnotes omitted):

    LDS Church leaders have traditionally been among the staunchest defenders of the United States, the Constitution, and of the rule of law. They openly taught that the founding fathers were guided by the hand of God, that the United States Constitution was divinely inspired, and that the United States was the chosen land for the restoration of Christ’s true church. In addition, as noted above, American exceptionalism and America as a promised land are both key elements of LDS doctrine.

    During the cold war, LDS leaders and Church members were among the strongest opponents of communism and communist regimes because of their denial of free agency, which is an essential tenet of the LDS Church’s view of the plan of salvation. At the same time, in spite of their abhorrence of communism, senior Church leaders, including the Church’s current Prophet, Thomas S. Monson, continued to show unwavering support for the 12th Article of Faith by encouraging members in communist countries to remain in their homelands and to obey, honor, and sustain the laws of those countries in spite of the restrictions on free agency, severe economic hardships, and regardless of whether the laws were just or not. 

Consequently, even before the fall of the Iron Curtain, the Church was able to gain concessions from East Germany such as building a temple in East Germany and getting permission for East German members to travel abroad to serve proselyting missions, because of its encouragement to members there to be good citizens. 

    But along the way, the Church changed from being an American church to being a worldwide church. And with that shift came a shift in the Church's practices toward illegal immigration. Mortensen relates:

    Today’s Church leaders seldom talk about the divinely inspired U.S. Constitution during general conference sessions because they are now addressing a truly worldwide audience. No longer is the 12th Article of Faith given the same status as when President Monson advised East German members to obey it unflinchingly, since the Church now has to reconcile its traditional support of the rule of law with its current practice of baptizing illegal aliens who are violating United States immigration laws and who routinely commit multiple job-related felonies.

    And, although the LDS Church continues to be based in Utah, its policies are no longer necessarily determined by what is best for the Utah or for the United States. As a worldwide church, LDS leaders now have to consider the impact that legislation in Utah will have on the Church’s international operations and its ability to take its message to countries around the world.

    Therefore, when the Utah legislature, which is composed primarily of members of the LDS Church, takes up illegal immigration-related legislation, the Church finds itself in the position of weighing the benefits for the citizens of Utah against the harm that the legislation may do to its missionary efforts within the illegal alien community, the impact that the legislation will have on its many illegal alien members, and the effect it will have on the Church’s overseas operations and interests.

Mortensen adds:

As the Church searches for the right balance, it has yet to explain to its American members why individuals violating U.S. immigration laws and committing multiple job-related felonies are eligible for baptism, temple recommends, and to serve in important church positions. Because of its failure to clarify its position on illegal immigration and to hold illegal aliens to the same standard as other members, mainstream Mormons are left to try to discern what this change means for the gospel as they have known it.

He goes on to discuss the actions that the Church as taken, some of it of the proverbial "back room" influence, to stymie immigration control and shield the Church from liability for employing illegals as missionaries or in other Church callings or positions. 

    Moreover, while the Church's position toward illegals and other migrants are supposedly based on doctrine's of compassion and strengthening the family (by keeping families of illegals together), Mortensen argues that the Church has ignored the costs to society (footnotes omitted):

    Both Jensen and Tuttle ignored the fact that the vast majority of illegal aliens commit multiple job-related felonies, including document/Social Security fraud, perjury on I-9 forms, and, in many cases, identity theft that victimizes an estimated 50,000 Utah children and their families.

    The victims of these employment-related felonies suffer very real and serious harm, including the destruction of their good names and futures. Children are denied public benefits, including badly needed medical assistance, and have their credit destroyed. They have income tax liabilities attached to their names for unpaid taxes on income earned under their Social Security numbers by illegal aliens and are saddled with the arrest records of illegal aliens using their numbers. Students are denied badly needed means-tested financial assistance, people with disabilities have their disability payments suspended when income is earned under their Social Security numbers, and people whose medical records are corrupted suffer life-threatening consequences.

    In spite of this, Church spokesman Tuttle still challenges those who argue in favor of the 12th Article of Faith, stating: “I wonder how they’d feel about the second great commandment, to love thy neighbor as thyself … . Sometimes it’s hard to do them all.” 

He adds:

Over the years, Church-owned media, which commands a large share of the Utah market, has continually supported illegal aliens and opposed any legislation that would limit their ability to function freely in Utah. Church-owned radio and TV stations, along with the Deseret News newspaper, serve as a public relations arm of the Church and attempt to sway public opinion by routinely carrying sympathetic stories about illegal aliens while ignoring the 50,000 Utah children who are victims of illegal aliens’ job-related identity theft and other victims of illegal immigration. The Deseret News also publishes a Spanish language newspaper, El Observador.

At the time of Mortensen's article, in 2011, the Church apparently followed an official policy of neutrality toward illegal immigration. In fact, an official statement from the Church issued in June 2011 stated, in part, "As a matter of policy, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints discourages its members from entering any country without legal documentation, and from deliberately overstaying legal travel visas." Privately, however, it supported bills that assisted illegal immigration and followed a "don't ask, don't tell" policy toward illegals wanting to join the Church, seeking temple recommends (necessary to enter the temple), or serving in Church positions.

    Moreover, the foregoing official statement was not, itself, entirely neutral as it warns against mass expulsion, encourages laws based on compassion (i.e., code word for not subjecting illegals to any legal consequences) and stating: "The Church supports an approach where undocumented immigrants are allowed to square themselves with the law and continue to work without this necessarily leading to citizenship." In other words, amnesty. The Church has elsewhere objected to separating children from their parents (or, as more likely the case, adult smugglers) at the border. 

    Moreover, the Church's supposed neutrality seems at odds with its establishment of "Welcome Centers" that " help immigrants find access to community legal services, improve their English, strengthen emotional resilience, progress on the path to citizenship and better understand American culture so that they can obtain better jobs and live better lives. The legal services are done in partnership with local university law schools." And, best of all, "all these services are free for immigrants." I'm sure that your and my tithing are paying for it, though.

    It seems to me that the Church leadership has decided on "compassion" for illegals, but a lack of the same for its rank and file American members or even Americans generally. One cannot be neutral about immigration. Immigration is great for the pocketbooks of the wealthy who benefit from cheap labor. But it is hardly compassionate to the breadwinner who must accept a lower wage to keep a job or is simply replaced by a cheaper immigrant, whose is priced out of a home because of the massive demand for housing created by mass immigration, who can no longer go to a local hospital because it has declared bankruptcy due to migrants not paying bills, whose culture and language is eroded, who no longer can live in a safe neighborhood because of the increased crime. Professions of "neutrality" toward immigration is, in reality, a signal that a person or group hates the natives.