President Donald Trump has been busy. Since taking office in January, tariffs, budget cuts across agencies and the administration’s campaign to crack down on illegal immigration and increase deportations have been at the top of the news cycle. Not to mention moves against public and private universities and the hundreds of lawsuits challenging Trump’s directives.
Despite Utah’s status as a red state that supported Trump in 2024, it hasn’t been spared. Especially with threatened federal workforce reductions and tariffs on the horizon. And while Gov. Spencer Cox is supportive of the president, he expressed hesitation at some of the administration’s methods.
“I am worried about the destruction of norms that happened,” he told reporters at his April 17 monthly news conference, noting he felt the same way during the last administration.
Immigration
The governor hasn’t been bashful about the need to secure the southern border. Utah has promised to aid deportations and has sent National Guard troops to the border in the past. He signed a law this year that makes it easier to deport migrants who have been convicted of a crime.
“We've been working very closely with [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] from the beginning of the administration. We've had almost daily contact,” Cox said. “There's certainly collaboration happening there, and I think that that will continue.”
The case of Salvadoran native Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported from Maryland and placed in an El Salvador prison, has made the most national headlines. It’s also become a litmus test of whether or not the White House will push the limits of the courts, including a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the administration should return Abrego Garcia.
Cox called the case “an interesting one” and said the discussion around the legal battle lacks nuance.
“It's like either you hate the Constitution, or you want terrorists living in America,” he said. “It seems like those are the two choices.”
To the governor, Abrego Garcia was in the country illegally and “probably should be deported.” Process is important, he noted, as well as respecting constitutional norms and the courts. The governor said he could be brought back, go through the deportation process and “that’s probably the way it should work.”
Before Abrego Garcia was sent to El Salvador, he was under a protective order issued by an immigration judge in 2019 over safety concerns in his native country.
“It really does matter that we hold to these constitutional norms, but pushing the boundaries of those norms is the prerogative [of the president], and … that's OK,” Cox said. “The Founders saw these types of things happening, knew that they would happen. It's not the worst thing to challenge those norms, see where the lines are, and then work within those lines.”
Higher education
International students attending Utah’s public and private universities, like in other states, have had their visas revoked without notice. Cox said he and university administrators weren’t briefed about the visa changes or the fact that they were rescinded. While some of the students had criminal records, others didn’t.
In one case, a Brigham Young University student’s visa was apparently revoked over a dismissed fishing license infraction.
The governor emphasized the importance of immigrants to Utah’s economy and the importance of having them study at Utah schools. He pointed out that Trump has made comments in the past about wanting to attract “the most talented and brightest from other countries” to the U.S.
“It's important that we vet those who come, that we make sure we understand their backgrounds, that they don't pose any threats, that they're supportive of our country and the work that's being done here,” he said. “Then it's important that we get them and we keep them.”
The governor said he reached out to the administration and requested more information about the visas, but hasn’t heard back.
“The Department of Homeland Security did refer us to a statement that came out last week that said that they would consider the anti-semitic activity on social media,” Cox said. “But we don't know if that was the case with those who have received those [visa termination] notices.”
The student visas are part of the administration’s broader challenge to higher education.
Constitutional norms
Ivy League universities, including Harvard, Columbia and Princeton, have been in the Trump administration’s crosshairs. The schools are being pressured to reform their admission practices and limit activism on campus, a response to pro-Palestine protests that broke out across schools nationwide last year. If the universities don’t comply with Trump’s orders, they risk losing millions in federal funding, or, in Harvard’s case, it’s tax-exempt status.
“This is one where, despite my significant disagreements with Harvard, I would, I would be very wary,” Cox said. “And by the way, Harvard has tons of money, like you know, maybe it does make sense that universities with those types of endowments should pay some taxes, right? We can have that discussion.”
While he is open to that discussion, he worries about when it is done for “ideological purposes.”
“I try to imagine what happens if my team loses another election,” he said. “I suspect that sometime in the future, we might lose an election.”
When it comes to removing funding from universities that don’t align with the president’s agenda or values, Cox likes to picture what the outcome would look like for conservatives. The example he gave was if Gavin Newsom, the Democratic governor of California, were elected president and enforced Trump-era policies to go after conservative causes.
“Then we have institutions in our state like Brigham Young University or a church that is headquartered here, who is now facing the very real possibility of that type of backlash,” he said. “It worries me, it scares me and I think we should tread very carefully.”
