SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (ABC 4 News) - Representative Stephen Sandstrom was a \"no show\" for an immigration debate at a Rotary Club luncheon on Tuesday, and the head of Proyecto Latino claims he \"chickened out.\"

SALT LAKE CITY — As the sun peaked over the Wasatch Mountains on a recent morning, several federal agents took strategic positions outside a small Kearns home while two knocked on the front door. A young Hispanic man pulled back the curtains in a window adjacent to the door to talk with them through the screen. A few minutes later, the man let U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents inside to look for a man they believed to be an illegal immigrant from Mexico whose criminal record includes theft and documents fraud.

Immigration does strange things to politicians. One-time US presidential candidate John McCain abandoned his previous moderate position on immigration in a successful attempt to retain the Republican Senate nomination in Arizona last month. Meg Whitman, former chief executive of Ebay, also adopted a hard line on immigration as she set out to become governor of California. Having won the Republican primary, she has changed tack, appealing to immigrants and Hispanic voters in her drive to win the election itself.

SALT LAKE CITY -- In the debate over illegal immigration, the argument is often raised that the people who knowingly employ undocumented workers deserve much of the blame. But there is another side to that story. Because they are in the country illegally, is it OK to cheat them, take advantage of their labor and refuse to give them pay? Carlos Chavez When Carlos Chavez moved to Utah more than a decade ago, he came here legally with a visitor\'s visa. But by the time it had expired, he had built a new life.

Utah is considering a free-market solution to illegal immigration that Arizona\'s Legislature rejected two years ago. Arizona should follow Utah\'s example and take another look at a guest-worker program. Like Arizona\'s SB 1070, Utah\'s guest-worker plan is a direct response to Washington\'s failure to enact rational immigration reform.

Welfare payments to children of illegal immigrants in Los Angeles County increased in July to $52 million, prompting renewed calls from one county supervisor to rein in public benefits to such families. The payments, made to illegal immigrants for their U.S. citizen children, included $30 million in food stamps and $22 million from the CalWorks welfare program, according to county figures released Friday by Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich.

The California governor\'s race shifts into high gear this week as Democrat Jerry Brown launches his television ad campaign after ceding the airwaves to Republican Meg Whitman over the summer. Mr. Brown\'s commercial illustrates the candidates\' contrasting resources and messages in a race expected to be one of the most expensive in the U.S. this fall.

A day after extending his unbeaten record in Arizona elections, Sen. John McCain on Wednesday looked ahead to his next battle _ a contest with a little-known Democrat that is likely to be a smooth ride to re-election. McCain easily dispatched J.D. Hayworth in Tuesday\'s Republican primary, extinguishing the biggest threat to his re-election in 24 years in the Senate.

WASHINGTON, DC.- La presentación de una iniciativa de ley en Utah que obligaría a las policías locales a arrestar indocumentados, ha desatado la presión de los activistas latinos para que la poderosa Iglesia Mormona aclare su posición públicamente. Considerada factor clave en la vida política y social del estado, la Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Últimos Días -su nombre formal- no ha podido escapar del álgido debate en torno a la iniciativa considerada antiinmigrante.

This year, Arizona became known as the state with the toughest policies against illegal immigration. That\'s why Deputy Chief Medical Examiner Eric Peters didn\'t think the Pima County coroner would see a surge in migrants killed while trying to cross Arizona\'s southern deserts. But despite beefed-up efforts to stem illegal immigration and an economy that makes work harder to come by, migrants are still trying to get into the country. And many are dying.

The lawsuit against the Arizona immigration law aside, Obama has devoted nearly all his efforts on immigration to ramped up enforcement, and his administration is on track to deport a record number of illegal immigrants. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency explains:

One of the highlights in news publications covering this past weekend’s State GOP convention is the California Republican Party’s refusal to embrace Arizona’s immigration law as a legitimate approach in dealing with the nation’s “broken” immigration system. The Washington Independent writes, “The party skipped over a resolution that would have stated the party’s support for SB 1070 and Proposition 187, a 1994 effort to cut public benefits to undocumented immigrants.”

Reporting from Tucson — This year, Arizona became known as the state with the toughest policies against illegal immigration. That\'s why Deputy Chief Medical Examiner Eric Peters didn\'t think the Pima County coroner would see a surge in migrants killed while trying to cross Arizona\'s southern deserts. But despite beefed-up efforts to stem illegal immigration and an economy that makes work harder to come by, migrants are still trying to get into the country. And many are dying.

SALT LAKE CITY — Rep. Stephen Sandstrom on Wednesday began his formal drive to push his tough immigration enforcement bill through the Legislature, telling an interim committee that Utah cannot wait for federal action. \"The federal government has utterly failed to protect its citizens. The immigration system is broken,\" Sandstrom, R-Orem, told the Judiciary, Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Interim Committee. The committee discussed the bill but took no action on it.

Supporters of Arizona-style immigration legislation made an emotional plea to legislators Wednesday to clamp down on illegal immigration, warning of drug cartels and terrorism if the state fails to act. Security was pervasive on Capitol Hill, as nearly 100 people filled the hearing room and dozens more listened from an overflow room nearby. A show of hands before the meeting indicated about 80 percent of those on hand were supportive of the bill.