The Deseret News reports the circumstance of yet another highly-productive Ogden resident who is being deported to Mexico, for relatively trivial reasons, we think, under federal immigration law:
Utah's art community is rallying behind Guillermo Colmenero, an emerging local sculptor and undocumented immigrant who was deported last week.
A motion to reopen Colmenero's case seeking legal status was recently denied, and his attorney said a past marijuana conviction has been the biggest obstacle in Colmenero's long-standing application for legal status.
Colmenero opted to be deported to Mexico on Thursday, his only option other than remaining in jail while his appeal is pending. His wife, Marla, a U.S. citizen, remains in Salt Lake.
"He's one of the top Latino artists in the state," Marla Colmenero said. "He wanted to be here legally. He made Utah his home for over 10 years. He didn't want to leave, but he didn't want to stay in jail either."
We'll happily entertain our readers' comments on this. While we recognize that we do have a serious "immigration problem" in this country, we wonder whether the law, as presently applied, isn't a mite heavy-handed in some individual cases.
One of our gentle readers directs our attention to a Saturday Standard-Examiner story, reporting the results of a Thursday night meeting, wherein the Farmington City Council voted unanimously to deny a property owner's rezoning request, despite a Planning Commission recommendation for approval. Our reader contends that this city council action is a demonstration of democracy in action, and an illustration of what can happen when citizens get involved in their local government. Our take, on the other hand, is that this council decision may represent the very type of mobocracy that the Founding Fathers warned us about. It seems to us that Mr. Haugen's fundamental property rights interests may not have been accorded due weight by the Commissars in the Farmington Chamber of People's Deputies in this matter; and we invite our readers' comments on this observation.Finally, the Standard-Examiner editorial page presents another Jay Hudson guest commentary, pertaining to concerns about the Mt. Ogden Parklands. Mr. Hudson, who also contributed an earlier Std-Ex article on the same topic recently, submits this latest guest piece in apologue form, presumably intended for readers other than Rudi. Your humble blogmeister inevitably and invariably experiences gastric distress, of course, whenever confronted with allegories, fables, parables and other metaphorical devices conveyed in overly-attenuated literary form. We are certain, however, that such contrivances work for other people, so we're highlighting the article here.
Comments are welcome on any of the above, or any other topics that float our readers' boats.
Time to shake out the weekend cobwebs, gentle readers, and get back to frenzied blogging again!
Update 11/23/06 11:12 a.m. MT: Sharp-eyed and genuinely gentle reader Dan S. informs us of this ominous language in a Std-Ex "Tuesday Council Agenda" notice, buried in the Std-Ex obituary page: "Process steps for Chris Peterson project."
We'd heard rumors that something new has been surreptitiously sent to our Emerald City Council by Peterson's high-priced mouthpiece, Ellison. We think Tuesday night's RDA meeting may be a must-attend event.
