A better way（双语）

AS ARIZONA’S lawyers prepare to enter more federal courtrooms to defend SB1070, the state’s new law against illegal immigrants and the harshest of its kind, the other 49 states are watching for clues. But SB1070, partially blocked by a federal judge, looks decreasingly likely to become a model. That may come instead from a neighbouring state. “I want to have a Utah solution; we are not Arizona,” says Gary Herbert, Utah’s governor. And he thinks Utah is close to finding one.

当亚利桑那州的律师准备走进更多的联邦法庭去捍卫本州的SB1070法案时，其余49个州也在各自寻找解决非法移民的方案。SB1070近期由亚利桑那州通过，它是打击非法移民最严厉的一部法律。但是由于SB1070法案中的部分条文被联邦法官叫停,亚利桑那州反移民法已不太可能成为其它州效仿的对象。但它的邻居州也许能够做到这一点。犹他州州长加里.赫伯特(Gary Herbert)说,“我想有一个犹他州的解决方案,我们不是亚利桑那州”。他认为犹他州很快就能够找到一个可行的办法。

Utah might seem very similar to Arizona. Historically, both once belonged to Mexico, then to the cowboy West. Demographically, both are very white, with significant Latino populations. Politically, both are conservative—a recent Gallup poll found Utah to be the most Republican state in the country. Both have nativists who dislike migrants and occasionally forget to distinguish between illegal and merely brown. And both have Republican governors who stepped into office because their predecessors got better jobs from Barack Obama, and who both now have to win re-election on their own terms.

犹他州与亚利桑那州在各方面都有着相似之处。历史上,它们都曾经归属于墨西哥,之后都经历过西部牛仔时期。人口上,都是有显著拉丁裔血统的白种人。政治上,都采用保守的作风——近期的一项盖洛普民意测验表明犹他州的共和党人数居全国各州之首。两州都有不喜欢移民者的本土主义人士，但有时他们也懒得去分辨非法移民和只是皮肤黑的人有什么区别。两州州长都是共和党人,由于他们的前任都在奥巴马总统那儿捞到了更好的差事,所以他们才得以接任,现在两人又不得不在各自任期内争取连任。

So it was not surprising that a Utah state representative, Stephen Sandstrom, started working on similar legislation as soon as Arizona passed SB1070 in April. Mr Sandstrom, hitherto obscure, instantly became a darling of right-wing groups, including Utah’s Minutemen. But Mr Sandstrom ran into strong opposition from an interesting quarter.

所以好不奇怪,亚利桑那州4月份一通过SB1070法案,犹他州议会代表斯蒂芬.桑德斯罗姆(Stephen Sandstrom)就开始着手类似立法文件的工作了。桑德斯罗姆(Sandstrom)至今也没弄清楚自己怎么一下子就变成右翼团体和犹他州反非法移民组织的红人了。但他也遭到了一个举足轻重的人物的强烈反对。

That was Chris Burbank, the police chief of Salt Lake City, a liberal island by Utah standards. Mr Burbank has been railing at any attempt to make cops enforce immigration laws. He considers this racist, because the police would have to consider ethnicity (he laughs at claims that this could be avoided) and dangerous because Latinos, as crime witnesses or victims, would stop co-operating with the police. This has taken some courage. Mr Burbank has been getting bags of hate mail calling him a “spic lover”, “traitor” and worse. He has received a picture of a noose.

这个人就是盐湖城警察局局长克里斯.伯班克(Chris Burbank)。盐湖城在犹他州内算是一处开明自由之地，因此任何想让警察执行移民法律的努力都会让克里斯.伯班克(Chris Burbank)牢骚满腹。他认为这是种族歧视的表现，因为警察在执法时不得不考虑一个人的种族成分(对于警察可以避免去这样做的说法，他一笑了之)同时他认为这种做法也是危险的，因为拉丁裔美国人在成为犯罪目击证人和受害者时一直拒绝和警方合作。但这样做是需要勇气的。伯班克(Burbank)经常收到恐吓信，信里把他称作 “喜欢西班牙裔美国人的家伙”， “叛徒”甚至更糟糕的称呼都有。他还收到过套索绳子的照片。

Thus the debate deteriorated. It reached its nadir when two women working for Utah’s main welfare agency stole the names, addresses, Social Security numbers—and even the due dates of expectant mothers—of some 1,300 mostly Latino people whom they suspected of being in Utah illegally. They sent this list to government officials and also, last month, to newspapers, with a ranting letter urging immediate deportation of all 1,300. Those on the list now live in fear.

争辩因此逐渐恶化并在犹他州福利总署的两名女雇员窃取了1300多人的个人资料后到达了顶点。这些资料涉及到的大多数是拉丁裔美国人，内容包括他们的姓名,地址,社会安全码，甚至孕妇的预产期。这两名女雇员怀疑这些人在犹他州非法居住。她们把这份名单送到政府官员手上，又在上个月分发给各大报社,名单中还附带一封长篇大论的信件，催促相关部门立即将这1,300人全部驱逐出境。现在这些被列入名单的人每天在惶恐不安中度日。

Ironically, however, the list changed the debate for the better. Almost all of Utah’s political elite, Mr Sandstrom included, were thoroughly embarrassed by it. The attorney-general, Mark Shurtleff, may bring criminal charges against the women who compiled it. Governor Herbert convened a round table on immigration demanding “respectful dialogue”.

然而出乎意料的是,这份名单却让激烈的争辩趋于缓和。几乎所有犹他州政界精英，包括桑德斯罗姆(Sandstrom)都对此事深感困惑。司法部长马克.舒特尔夫(Mark Shurtleff)可能会对这两名搜集名单资料的女人提起罪案指控。州长赫伯特(Herbert)也针对移民问题召开了圆桌会议，要求"在相互尊重的基础上进行对话"。

One of those at the table, Tony Yapias, Utah’s most prominent Latino activist, thinks it helped that almost everybody at the table was Republican. They realised that the onus is upon them, as the governing party, to elevate the debate, he says.

犹他州最著名的拉丁裔活动家托尼.亚皮尔斯(Tony Yapias)也参加了会议。由于参加会议的几乎都是共和党人，所以托尼.亚皮尔斯(Tony Yapias)认为会议更容易进行并取得成果。他说，共和党意识到自己做为管理者有责任解决好这次争端。

It might also have helped that virtually everybody at the table was Mormon. The Arizona state senator who sponsored SB1070, Russell Pearce, is also Mormon, which has led to speculation that this is why the Mormon Church has not yet expressed a moral opinion on the matter. But as Mormons, many of Utah’s politicians have either been in Latin America as missionaries in their youth or have loved ones who were. Mr Herbert’s son has been to Puerto Rico. Mr Sandstrom once proselytised in Venezuela and says he even has a permanent-residency permit there (through a fluke of paperwork). He once sponsored a Venezuelan family to come to America legally.

出席会议的人几乎都是摩门教徒，这也会对事件的进展有利。但倡导SB1070的亚利桑那州参议员罗塞尔.皮尔斯(Russell Pearce)也同样是摩门教徒。因此人们大概能猜到摩门教会至今都不对这件事表明自己道德立场的原因了。但是做为摩门教徒,犹他州政界人士中的一些人年轻时曾在拉丁美洲做过传教士,而另一些则对有传教经历的人心存好感。赫伯特(Herbert)的儿子过去曾去过波多黎各。桑德斯罗姆(Sandstrom)在委内瑞拉时也改变了宗教信仰,他甚至在那里获得了永久居留权。(从一份意外获得的文件中获知。)他还曾经赞助过一个委内瑞拉家庭来美国合法生活。

In this more civil conversation, an idea by Mr Shurtleff, the attorney-general, has been gaining favour (although he, too, is getting bags of hate mail for it). Mr Shurtleff proposes an arrangement between Utah and individual Mexican states such as Nuevo Leon, in the north-east. Employers in Utah could request workers and the Mexican authorities would screen applicants. Utah would issue these Mexicans a guest-worker card similar to the driving permits it already gives illegal immigrants. It would separate “the work line from the immigration line,” says Mr Shurtleff.

在这次融洽的讨论中,司法部长舒特尔夫(Shurtleff)的想法一直得到广泛的认同(尽管他也因此收到了恐吓信件。) 舒特尔夫(Shurtleff)提出一项只适用于犹他州和个别墨西哥州的计划方案,比如位于墨西哥东北部的新莱昂州。犹他州的用人单位可以先提出用工请求,然后墨西哥当局对有意赴美工作的申请人进行资格审查。犹他州将向这些墨西哥人发放外籍劳工证,类似于之前发放给非法移民的驾驶许可证。舒特尔夫(Shurtleff)先生说,这样就把外籍务工人员从移民人员中分离出来了。

He calls this the “Golden Spike initiative”, which is emotionally potent. It reminds Utahns of the transcontinental railroad, completed in Utah with a golden spike in 1869. What the Chinese and Irish labourers were then, Mr Shurtleff implies, Mexicans are today.

他把这称做 “金道钉法案”,从情感上来说,会具有很强的影响力。它让犹他州人回想起1869年犹他州最后一颗“金道钉”被砸下做为竣工标志的跨洲铁路。舒特尔夫(Shurtleff)暗示说过去用的是中国人和爱尔兰人,而今天用的是墨西哥人。

The irony in his proposal is that such a guest-worker programme would necessarily encroach upon a federal prerogative. The workers would still have to cross an international border, so the feds would have to carve out an exception for Utah, which might lead to 49 other exceptions. Avoiding just such a “patchwork” is officially the reason the Obama administration is suing Arizona over SB1070.

讽刺的是,犹他州的这项外籍劳工计划将必然侵犯联邦特权。这些劳动力仍需跨境工作,因此联邦政府又不得为犹他州开创先例,这可能会遭到其余49州的强烈反对。当初奥巴马政府对亚利桑那州SB1070进行诉讼的官方说法就是为了避免诸州各出法令而缺乏整体协调的局面发生。

Paired with a state enforcement law better written than SB1070, however, such an approach might amount to a compelling compromise. Mr Sandstrom, for his part, says he is “undeterred” by last week’s federal court decision to suspend parts of SB1070 and will next week unveil an improved bill for Utah. He is sceptical about a guest-worker programme with just one or two Mexican states, but open to it.

该项计划和比SB1070更合理的犹他州反移民法相配合，或许能达到不同凡响的折衷效果。桑德斯罗姆(Sandstrom)称，对他而言,联邦法院上周决定暂缓执行SB1070部分法律的结果并不会让他的信心受挫,他将于下周公布经过改进的犹他州移民法案。但他怀疑为什么外籍劳工计划不在在全墨西哥展开,而只选择了一两个州。更多信息请访问：http://www.24en.com/

In January Utah’s legislature will reconvene. By that time, thinks Mr Herbert, it is quite possible that Utah’s Republicans will have reached sufficient consensus for a “hybrid between worker permits and Arizona-style enforcement”. And that might be the model for the rest of America.

一月份犹他州立法会将复会。赫伯特(Herbert)说届时对于这项具备外劳准入和亚利桑那州特点的法律,共和党可能会达到更充分的共识。或许它还能为其它州树立一个参考的范例。