Border policy in the United States plays out politically during an election year. The impact goes beyond the border states and the fight between Texas and the federal government.
Inland states like Utah have felt it too. Republican Gov. Spencer Cox has not been bashful about it.
Governors are dealing with “a dysfunctional federal government who's not doing their job, and it's putting pressure on all of us,” he said at a March 21 news conference, repeating an oft-made point. “And so regardless of what side of this issue you are on, we need a federal government to do their job.”
From 2021 to 2023, immigration cases filed for migrants who are using Utah addresses jumped more than sixfold, The Salt Lake Tribune reported. Part of this spike has to do with the way these cases are being processed.
“The administration has sought to come up with orderly ways to deal with the border by encouraging people to present themselves to border officials to initially review their cases, rather than attempt illegal entry,” Leonor Peretta, an immigration attorney in West Jordan wrote in an email to KUER.
“As more use this, immigration agents process them for removal proceedings if they may qualify and so that increases the numbers in court as opposed to illegal entrants that immigration is not aware of.”
As more cases enter the system, the processes for both judges and migrants get stretched. It can take a long time for people to even get a consultation with a lawyer right now, said Steven Lawrence, an immigration lawyer with Utah Immigration Attorneys.
“Most of the attorneys I know that do asylum or other things like that, they’re [booking consultations] two or three weeks out.”
Most of the 20,891 immigration cases filed in fiscal year 2023 in Utah happened in Salt Lake County. This makes sense in the state’s most populous county, but caseloads are being felt in smaller counties too.
Millard County saw the most cases per capita — where there were 13.4 cases per 1,000 residents. Back in 2017, there were just three cases. In 2023, that number jumped to 177. That’s a big change for a rural county with 13,437 residents.
“During the last two years, we have experienced more people coming in, especially to Delta,” said the Rev. Marco Lopez.
Lopez is a pastor at Saint John Bosco Catholic Mission and has worked in Utah since 2008. He was born in El Salvador and moved to the U.S. 20 years ago.
There are fewer resources in Millard County, which means people there are less likely to have legal representation. In Salt Lake County, 24.9% of active cases have legal representation. In Millard County, just 9.6% of cases are represented.
Many of the new residents Lopez has met come from rural places in Peru and El Salvador. He said they chose to move to Millard County because it feels like home.
“The people coming to this area are mostly people who have lived on a farm, and they know how to do that kind of job.”
Beyond that, he said Millard County has “less traffic, and everything is more close. And the environment … it's a quiet, quiet, quiet environment.”
