SALT LAKE CITY — The Texas congressman who heads the U.S. House Judiciary Committee has accused the Justice Department of being \"hypocritical\" for not pursuing legal action against a Utah law approving a guest worker program for illegal immigrants.

Amid a steady trickle of questions from LDS members and a swelling stream of political criticism of a state guest-worker law, the church is repeating its support of the Utah Compact, and it again described immigration laws enacted by Utah’s governor and Legislature as “a responsible approach.” The statement, posted Tuesday on the church’s official website, came in response to “three or four calls a day [from members] … asking for the [LDS] church’s position on immigration,” said spokesman Scott Trotter. “The information is meant to reiterate what we’ve already said multiple times, rather than serve as a new statement on the topic.”

Washington • A Utah-born, common-ground approach to fixing America’s broken immigration system was part of a White House discussion Tuesday and may serve as a model in moving the dicey debate forward. John Wester, bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City and an architect of the Utah Compact, was one of the leaders invited to the meeting that included President Barack Obama and a bevy of Cabinet heads.

LDS Church leaders to Republican delegates: What part of “we support the guest-worker bill” do you not understand? Actually, the LDS Church has not responded to the immigration-reform issue with that kind of in-your-face demeanor. That’s just me.

At the one-year anniversary of the enactment of Arizona’s controversial immigration law, a group trying to head off similar laws elsewhere encouraged states to copy the Utah Compact — but not to imitate the package of bills actually passed by the Utah Legislature, which it says are unconstitutional. “Thanks to the effort of political, faith and business leaders, the debate in Utah was positive and constructive. Unfortunately, the outcome was not. The laws passed by Utah are flawed and unconstitutional,” said Janet Murguía, president and CEO of the National Council of La Raza, a Latino advocacy group.

Adan Gallegos stands with a crowd of day laborers waiting on job offers in front of the Circle K convenience store in Chandler’s “Little Sonora” neighborhood. On this day, there are about a dozen men alongside him near the corner store at 295 S. Arizona Ave. — which fronts the neighborhood of small apartments and mobile home parks where residents say at least 90 percent of the people are from the Mexican state of Sonora.

Some political candidates campaigned last fall with a promise to \"Take Back Our Country\" and urged states to follow Arizona\'s lead in enacting state immigration laws that would fill the void left by a neglectful federal government. The fervor grew intense as they whipped up a lather of fear. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer talked about headless bodies being dumped near the border with Mexico (which she later retracted), and Sen. John McCain, once a leading voice for national immigration reform, flopped and ran TV ads of his furrowed brow near the border walls

SALT LAKE CITY — A conservative Utah think tank is taking on \"right-wing extremism\" in an updated essay reflective of its experiences in the recent legislative debate on illegal immigration. In the Sutherland Institute\'s addendum to its 2004 treatise \"The Poison of Extremism,\" executive director Paul T. Mero takes aim at what he refers to as the state\'s grassroots \"Deportation Caucus.\"

Indiana\'s illegal-immigration bill is looking far less like a controversial proposal that started as a way to target the so-called \"reasonably suspicious\" and much more like an effort to punish employers that hire illegal workers. The House Public Policy Committee on Thursday reshaped Senate Bill 590 and will vote on it this morning. It\'s now stripped of provisions that, like a bill passed a year ago in Arizona, would have required local and state police to enforce federal immigration laws.

TALLAHASSEE -- For evidence of the political minefield that is immigration reform, look no further than the Florida Senate. On one side is Senate President Mike Haridopolos, who is looking to attract tea-party conservatives to his Republican bid for U.S. Senate, along with others in the GOP — including Gov. Rick Scott — who want to show they are taking action to tackle illegal immigration.

Arguing that the federal government has not done enough to protect the country’s borders, Georgia on Thursday followed Arizona’s lead in passing tough legislation aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration. Both chambers of the state legislature passed a bill modeled on Arizona’s controversial immigration law, requiring businesses to confirm that new hires are legally eligible to work in the United States and authorizing police to check the immigration status of some criminal suspects.

Given how toxic the GOP brand is to many Latinos, it\'s ironic that the first Republican presidential debate will be on Cinco de Mayo. On May 5, a handful of GOP hopefuls are expected to gather in Greenville, South Carolina, for the first Republican presidential debate. One subject that is sure to come up is immigration.

Right Side News Reports from the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) in this April 11, 2011 Legislative Weekly. FAIR tracks pending immigration laws in the United States which can impact homeland security in positive or negative ways and are a valued resource.

While Arizona lawmakers gear up to fight a federal court\'s decision to uphold a block on major parts of Arizona\'s immigration law, pro-immigration advocates are pushing hard for a national version of the Utah Compact, a document that calls for a softer approach to immigration reform. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals turned down an appeal Monday asking the court to lift an injunction imposed the day before Arizona\'s law was to take effect on July 29, 2010. The U.S. Justice Department sued to block the law, saying it violates the U.S. Constitution because enforcing immigration law is a federal issue.

With President Obama and the Democrats stuck in reactive mode, Republicans are driving most of the serious discussions in Washington. This includes the debate over the budget, more spending cuts, and whether to raise the federal debt limit. But it also includes the recurring discussion about how to enforce the nation\'s immigration laws and what to do with those who break them.

Not only did some get jobs with fake Social Security numbers and few questions about their immigration status, in some cases they actually told managers point-blank their papers were no good. And they often stayed on for years. Marta, an undocumented worker from Mexico, twice used false Social Security numbers to secure positions at the chain now being audited by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.