Credit Senator Mitt Romney
Utah Senator Mitt Romney recently talked to KPCW about some of the issues that impact Utah and the West including immigration, wildfires and water use.
Senator Romney said it is way past time that leaders in Washington deal with immigration reform.
He said there will be a bipartisan effort to forge a solution, but he doesn’t know how successful it might be.
“And my party has traditionally welcomed legal immigration. And there have been various points of view about illegal immigration and how to prevent it, or to reduce it. But legal immigration, as well as dealing with refugees from other places of the world, has been part of our heritage, particularly in our state. Our state has been a leader in welcoming people who are suffering. And it’s one of the things I think that distinguishes us in a very positive way.”
Long-awaited bill to settle Navajo Nation water rights in San Juan County passed by Congress
The legislation formalizes tribal water rights in southeast Utah and provides $220 million to construct water projects on the Utah Navajo strip.
(Leah Hogsten | Tribune file photo) Two young boys fill the family water tank at the Oljato-Monument Valley water spigot adjacent to the post office on June 22, 2020. The water well is one of a few locations in San Juan County where members of the Navajo Nation can get clean water. More than one-third of Navajo Nation households lack running water, and the problem is even worse in San Juan County where over 40% of Navajo Nation residents have to haul water. Families fill jugs at communal wells or buy bottled water from stores both costly and time-consuming burdens that have become only more difficult during the pandemic and the tribe s daily and weekend curfews.