SLC Police Chief Won't Comply with New Immigration Law Provision

[Drunken Irishman]

(KCPW News) Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank says he will not cross-deputize his officers to serve as federal immigration agents, as specified under a sweeping illegal immigration law that goes into effect in July. He's come under fire from the bill's co-sponsor, Representative Mike Noel, for not agreeing to participate. But Chief Burbank told KCPW's Elizabeth Ziegler that cross deputizing is not mandatory.

http://kcpw.org/article/7695

This is getting big news in Salt Lake, since we've got one of the fastest growing Hispanic communities in the west. Burbank's reasoning is that the police won't racially profile and he feels this will deter other legal Mexicans from reporting real crime.

Predictably, it has set off a firestorm here in Utah.