Utah lawmaker proposes bill to put a check on immigration enforcement action in state

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Utah Sen. Nate Blouin, D-Millcreek, has proposed a bill to put a check on federal immigration agents' enforcement actions.
The bill would restrict federal agents' access to "sensitive" locations and limit cooperative efforts involving state and local agencies.
The bill could face an uphill battle in Utah, where many GOP leaders favor increased immigration enforcement action.

SALT LAKE CITY — Amid increasing immigration enforcement action around the country, Utah Sen. Nate Blouin aims to put a check on the activity in Utah.

Ultimately, the Millcreek Democrat would like to see an end to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency known as ICE, which is tasked with enforcing U.S. immigration law and increasingly in the public eye.

Blouin, also vying this election cycle for a U.S. House seat, has proposed legislation that would limit federal immigration agents' access to nonpublic areas of state courthouses, certain health care facilities and other "sensitive" locations when carrying out enforcement action. The measure would limit the ability of state and local law enforcement agencies to assist with federal immigration enforcement operations in churches, hospitals, courthouses and other "sensitive" sites.

Moreover, SB136 would limit the ability of federal immigration agents to use face coverings, a point of contention for some, as masked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials increasingly carry out enforcement action around the country.

"Today more than ever, we understand the need to protect our community against the federal overreach of ICE, and while keeping them out of churches and other sensitive locations is a start, the end goal must be to abolish ICE," Blouin said in a statement. His proposal — coming amid intense national debate over the Jan. 7 shooting death of a woman in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during an immigration enforcement operation — emerged Wednesday.

In Republican Utah, where many top officials laud increased efforts to detain and deport immigrants in the country illegally, the legislation likely faces an uphill battle. Utah's 2026 legislative session starts next Tuesday, Jan. 20. But Blouin's approach resonates with some at the grassroots level, and a representative from a Utah immigrant advocacy group, Brianna Puga of Comunidades Unidas, expressed support for the measure.

Some people are pulling their kids from school, avoiding churches and other places of worship and forgoing medical care at hospitals and clinics "because ICE has turned daily life and meeting basic needs into a danger zone," Puga said. "Families and individuals are being criminalized, policed, harassed, violently detained and killed under this administration's brutal immigration enforcement."

Similarly, more than 100 people attended Tuesday's Salt Lake City Council meeting to voice opposition to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the agency's efforts targeting immigrants around the country. Some called on the City Council, which listened to the speakers but didn't take any formal action, to cease cooperative efforts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In an interview with KSL.com, Blouin singled out the provision of SB136 that would prohibit state and local officials from cooperating with immigration agents in enforcement actions at churches and other places of worship.

"To me, this is a religious freedom issue of preventing nasty law enforcement actions from happening in churches and other sensitive areas," he said. "Utah is a state that strongly believes in religious freedom, that believes people should be able to go to church, to go to their place of worship and feel free and not feel like they're going to be attacked."

He also stressed the provision that limits federal immigration agents from using face coverings during enforcement actions. Agents would be prohibited from using masks except when needed for physical safety or during undercover operations, among other circumstances. People "are scared of secret police in their communities that are not identifiable, that we can't hold accountable," Blouin said.

In Blouin's formal statement announcing his initiative, Puga also referenced the use of face coverings by immigration agents. "Masked, unidentified agents abducting people from our neighborhoods is inhumane and unacceptable. We refuse to normalize state violence against immigrants and community members," she said.

While Blouin's bill reflects the aversion of some in Utah to increased immigration action around the country, many GOP leaders in Utah have sounded strong support for the efforts, a priority of President Donald Trump's administration. Amid the increasing attention Immigration and Customs Enforcement moves are getting, Weber County Sheriff Ryan Arbon, for one, released a statement this week via social media sounding support for the agency and its efforts.

"Too often, enforcement is framed as the problem, rather than the breakdown of order that forced a response. That same dynamic is now appearing in national debates around immigration enforcement, with federal actions used as rallying points to reignite unrest far removed from local realities," Arbon wrote.

Federal immigration agents are not "a threat to our local communities," he said. The big concern, as he sees it, "is the growing willingness, nationwide, to excuse disorder, criminal behavior and intimidation when they are labeled as protest."

Blouin is one of several Democrats vying for Utah's 1st District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. The recently redrawn boundaries for the district put it all within Salt Lake County, a relative stronghold for Democrats in Utah.

Contributing: Bridger Beal-Cvetko

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