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SALT LAKE CITY -- Utah Latino leaders are rejecting Utah Republican Rep. Stephen Sandstrom's immigration bill and say it's an "Arizona-lite" bill, basically a watered-down version.
But Utah Hispanic Latino Coalition co-founder Jose Gutierrez says the Latino community won't hit the streets to rally support against Sandstrom's bill. "It's not going to be a good solution," he says, "to show that we are 200,000 people invading the city and the streets."
How is he trying to make a law against immigrants if he doesn't understand them?
–Jose Gutierrez
Instead, Gutierrez says Utah Latino leaders and activists plan to call politicians to craft a bi-partisan bill he says benefits all Utahns.
"Inviting them to work together, that's the solution," he says. "Democrats and Republicans need to talk. We're going to be the bridge."
In fact, Gutierrez accuses Sandstrom of not talking to immigrants before he wrote his bill.
"How is he trying to make a law against immigrants if he doesn't understand them?" he says. "Maybe he knows but he doesn't understand the situation of them."
However, the Republican representative says Hispanic immigrants contacted him before he wrote his bill and offered their input.
"I've had literally dozens and dozens of people that are Hispanic call me or e-mail me saying, ‘How can I help? Because we want this bill to pass too. We don't agree with people coming to the country illegally,'" Sandstrom says.
Meanwhile, Latino leaders and activists plan to meet this week to strategize ways to garner support for an alternative bill.
E-mail: niyamba@ksl.com