Utah should reject new cheap foreign-worker visas and focus on local hiring

The editorial denounces a newly announced bipartisan initiative by John Curtis and Mark Kelly that seeks to establish a Utah program granting temporary visas to foreign laborers, even those without legal status. It frames the proposal as a step toward broader amnesty and an incentive to import cheap workers instead of improving wages, training or housing for locals. Citing Utah's falling unemployment-population ratio and a college student body of roughly 250,000, the author argues there is no genuine labor shortage.

The piece notes that the federal system already provides more than 90 visa types and that over a million immigrants enter legally each year, questioning the moral duty to expand pathways for undocumented workers. It calls for policies that match Utah graduates with available jobs, raise wages, and encourage automation, rather than relying on foreign labor to sustain industries.