Utah political operative urges Utahns to oppose
Trump pick for refugee program head, by Ann Corcoran, 5/28/18
I told you the other day, that the Trump Administration is
putting up Utah resident and former State Department Foreign Service
Officer, Ron Mortensen, for
the top post at the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and
Migration. The position requires Senate approval and this is the beginning of
what lies ahead for Mortensen on The Hill.
Holly Richardson wants Utah’s Senators
to block Trump nominee to head refugee program. There is nothing of major
significance in the opinion piece by Holly Richardson (it is the same old stuff
used against anyone with Mortensen’s views), but we learned a few more nuggets
about the Mormon Church’s open borders viewpoint and its welcoming attitude
toward Muslim migrants. And we
learned more about Senator Mike Lee (once the darling of the conservative Tea Party
movement in America).
From
the Salt
Lake Tribune:
The
irony is thick. The very week that The
New York Times published an opinion piece on “What Islamophobic
Politicians Can Learn From Mormons,” Donald
Trump nominated an immigration hardliner, Utahn Ron Mortensen, to oversee
refugees and migration. As the Times piece points out, since 2015, 49 states
have had Republican officials publicly attacking Islam. The one standout was
Utah. Now, one Utahn with strong anti-immigrant positions could ascend to a
position of prominence.
Mortensen
has a long and vocal history of opposing immigration, especially undocumented
immigrants. He has been writing anti-immigrant opinion pieces for more than a
decade. He has castigated the LDS Church many times for its pro-family approach
to immigration. In January, the LDS Church urged Congress to take action to
prevent the deportation of “Dreamers,” or children who were brought to the
United States without documentation. Mortensen criticized the church’s stance,
saying that most “Dreamers” were committing multiple felonies.
In
2013, he called President Dieter F. Uchtdorf and other LDS leaders either naive
or mean-spirited when Uchtdorf said President Barack Obama’s outline for
immigration reform “matches the values of the Mormon faith” and included the
shared values of compassion, family cohesion, respect for law and common sense.
The
immigration “think tank” he belongs to proudly claims to be the nation’s only
one “devoted exclusively to research and policy analysis of the economic,
social, demographic, fiscal, and other impacts of immigration on the United
States.”
It
says right in its tagline that it is for low immigration, whether documented or
not. It concludes that “current, high levels of immigration are making it
harder to achieve such important national objectives as better public schools,
a cleaner environment, homeland security, and a living wage.” It’s also been
labeled a hate group for its anti-immigrant bent.
Mortensen asserts that Utah has “lost its moral compass” because Utah
as a whole welcomes immigrants into our communities and sides with the tenets
of the Utah Compact.
Republican Senator Mike Lee opposed
Trump’s presidential bid because of Trump’s so-called “Muslim travel ban”
Mortensen
and his ilk aside, Utah
has a long history of supporting refugees.
Surprise
or not, this move is outrageous. It is akin to appointing David Duke to oversee
race relations or Karl Marx to oversee the free market.
Mortensen will need to be confirmed by the United States Senate. Both
Utah senators can and should block this nomination. Senior Sen. Orrin Hatch has
been a staunch supporter of ”Dreamers” and of the Utah Compact. Sen. Mike
Lee did not vote for Donald Trump in part, he said, because he saw Trump’s
travel ban on refugees from Muslim countries as an inappropriate “religious
test.”
(As
you know Trump handily won Utah in 2016 without Mike Lee!) If you’ve ever
wanted to “be the change,” here is your chance. Call the senators’ offices. More here. See my Utah
archive here. I
wonder that maybe Holly wasn’t paying attention when Esar Met a newly arrived Muslim refugee from Burma brutally
murdered a little Christian girl there.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody
GA Tea Party Leader
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