Cox reaffirms plan to deport undocumented immigrants who commit crimes
Dec 19, 2024, 7:00 PM
FILE - Utah Gov. Spencer Cox speaks during a news briefing on March 1, 2024, in Salt Lake City. (Rick Bowmer/Associated Press)
(Rick Bowmer/Associated Press)
SALT LAKE CITY — Gov. Spencer Cox reaffirmed on Thursday that Utah would support President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to deport undocumented immigrants.
During his monthly news conference on PBS Utah, Cox said he wants to focus on undocumented immigrants who commit crimes.
Cox noted that being undocumented itself is a crime, but the state will focus on undocumented immigrants in jail and those who are actively committing other crimes.
“We have to secure the border, that’s first and foremost,” Cox said. “President Trump will do that and we will help to do that any way we can. And now we start deporting those criminals. That’s where this starts.”
Cox said even though the president-elect has talked about using the National Guard for mass deportations, there hasn’t been any discussion of that yet locally.
Cox also said that ICE leadership is too broken to perform mass deportations.
“I don’t see any scenario under which 20 million people can be deported. That’s just not logistically possible right now when we can’t even deport somebody breaking the law down the street.”
The governor also said that ICE has been sending undocumented immigrants to the state for years and the Biden administration has done nothing about it.
Cox highlighted that his views and plans for immigration are not new.
“We care about those who are here, those who have come here legally. It’s really important that we fix legal immigration. I am not saying anything now that I haven’t been saying for 15 years.”
