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Utah has not seen much of the overt drama that has accompanied the issue of illegal immigration in places like Arizona, New York, Aurora, Colo., or other locations around the map, including Springfield, Ohio, of all places. Utah, given its historically homogenous and, frankly, somewhat boring nature, does not often make the national news. Sure, we do have the occasional high-profile murder case or land management squabble, and Mike Lee makes the headlines now and then, but usually, my state flies below the radar.
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That said, one of the hallmarks of the illegal immigration crisis is that serious issues crop up in cities and towns where no one would have expected, and not just Springfield. Take Herriman, Utah, for example. Herriman is one of the many cities in Utah that has been experiencing growth, and not just from California ex-pats.
In November, KUTV confirmed what most people already knew: Tren de Aragua is in Utah. Captain Tanner Jensen, director of the Statewide Information and Analysis Center, told the outlet that the Venezuelan gang is primarily focused on forced labor, sextortion, prostitution, drug trafficking, extortion, theft, and burglary.
But the station also noted that members of the Venezuelan gang were involved in a September incident at an apartment complex in Herriman, which involved gunfire and a car crashing through a fence.
This kind of criminal activity is an infectious disease and cannot be limited to a single area without treatment. Tren de Aragua’s notorious sphere of influence has also spread to the nearby city of Riverton. The Post Millennial talked with Venezuelan immigrant and Riverton resident Carlos Henandez. Hernandez has asylum-seeker status and said that police in Herriman have not taken the threat that Tren de Aragua poses seriously. His nephew was shot in the September incident. He has given evidence to the police, but gang members are still on the streets and have threatened his family.
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“They said they were going to help us … we are doing the police’s work.”
A Utah father says that the Tren de Aragua gang has targeted his family, and that authorities have not done enough to help. pic.twitter.com/i0EcIEvB09
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) January 6, 2025
According to The Post Millennial:
Hernandez told TPM those gang members who have been released from jail have a criminal history and that this has been brought up to the police, but Hernandez said that law enforcement in his area is not doing enough about the situation.
Hernandez told TPM that authorities “were going to relocate me and my family, they were going to change my house because we are victims of attempted homicide here in the United States, they said that they were going to help us.”
While there is absolutely no reason to respect Gov. Jared Polis (D-Colo.), one can at least understand the trajectory of his thought process when it comes to illegal immigration and the crime it brings with it. Like many on the Left, his is an execrable, tone-deaf, and self-serving attitude. Although Herriman is known as a community that “welcomes” immigrants, one must wonder why, if what Hernandez says is true, the police have been lax in addressing the problem of one of the most violent South American gangs setting up shop in their town. It may be that the September incident has been classified as a clash between gangs. The only problem with that rationale is that gang violence and criminal activity never stay limited to inter-gang conflicts.
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Conversely, Riverton Mayor Trent Staggs, who lost a senate bid to John Curtis, seems to understand the gravity of the situation and, by all lights, intends to cooperate with Tom Homan when he takes the wheel later this year:
Riverton, Utah Mayor says he’s going to work with ICE to deport illegals.
Illegals in Utah are reportedly “panicking” about the planned deportations ahead of Trump’s presidency. pic.twitter.com/I9lfBruE8l
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) January 8, 2025
Sportscaster Bob Costas once referred to Utah as “the land of the blonde and the bland.” When I first moved here, that was the case. I drive through Herriman and Riverton from time to time. In many ways, they resemble most non-descript Utah towns, with their cookie-cutter subdivisions, standard-issue retail malls, car washes, and LDS chapels on almost every corner. But there is clearly something dark and dangerous at work in those places.
Maybe there is a desire to put one’s head in the sand and pretend that either the Leftist or suburban utopian vision of America will carry the day. The truth is that four years of the Biden administration came dangerously close to killing any vision of utopia, and the events of the last few days have shown how the Marxist plan for America has played out in California in real time.
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The vote on the Laken Riley Act and Staggs’ promise to cooperate with ICE are encouraging. However, if we want to make America safe, the public must loudly and proactively reject the policies that have plagued the nation.