I bet they will get in, after all they are form great britain and senetor orin hatch has come to their aid. I'd wonder if he would of done the same for a person of Hispanic decent?

I love how the D-News runs a story like this about a white, LDS family's troubles with immigration. Of course this never happens to hispanic, catholic immigrants (yeah right). Poor editorial work. At the very least the News should have ran a concurrent story about 2 different families who lost their legal immigration status - one of the white mormons, and one of the hispanic catholics.

I wonder how many of the posters who usually post on immigration status would still stand by their words and say something ridiculous like "ship these illegals back to where they came from," or something about them breaking the law.

Gotta love the hypocrisy.

Too bad for them. If the family's last name was "Martinez", then they'd be ok to stay in Utah for as long as they wanted, regardless of visa regulations.

Of course narrow minded individuals turns this into a racist item. It was an article of interest of misfortune that came to a family. Unfortunately due to an inexperienced lawyer (hopefully they get reimbursed) the paperwork got fouled up. I hope the best turns out for this family, and others that may experience such unfortunate situations regardless of the race card.

This family came into the US LEGALLY. They didn't sneak across the border, committ identity theft or get fake social security numbers. They were operating completely legally and above board. They are being forced to leave due to the incompetence of their attorney.

There is no comparison between this case and the cases of millions of illegals who crash our borders each year. There actually is a way to come into this country legally. That's what this family did. I think it's really tragic that this is happening to them and that a few people out there can't see the difference.

All of which goes to show that the laws of this land are turning into narrow minded idiotic laws. Enforced by other equally narrow minded people most likely not qualified to be there. I'm sure those government hyprocrites would not apply the laws equally to themselves if the tables were turned.

RE:Ortiz @ 12:48am. Your reply sounded very racist. That fact is they are trying to do this all legal. They entered this country with a Visa in hand already, so that makes it legal. They didn't cross the border illegally. So the fact that they are white and british has nothing to do with it. They are not messing with the system.

I really hope all will turn out well for this family. Not based on religion or culture but because they are trying to do it legally. they are not trying to mess with the system, but to work with it -- which alot of people who come here don't do.

"ship these illegals back to where they came from." Feel better now SLC'er.

Sooo interesting that SLC'er and Gus view this situation from two totally opposite perspectives. I guess it's true that we don't see things as they really are. We see things as we are. We, humans, sure are an interesting bunch!

So much for trying to do it the right way. Reward the criminals and punish the people who try to do it right.

How amazing that these folks would even consider returning to their home country to wait to return legally. Our Mexican "neighbors" just abscond into the community and remain here laughing at our nation's immigration laws. But of course, that would be racist to just talk about Mexicans vs. Britains.

The article states: "that people who need immigration lawyers be savvy customers."

What about lawyers who accept money for immigration work should be savvy lawyers?? I'm sure this lawyer is going on his merry way, with their money and no consequences.

Immigration is always demonstrating that it lacks humanity.

Narrow minded individuals? White or brown if this family is telling the truth they did everything right and some 8 ball attorney blew it. Those of us who are narrow minded (as you call us) might remind you dopes that the aliens we are down on sneak into the country and bleed the rest of us. But that is your usual way of dealing with your liberalism, calling those who disagree with you names.

The important thing to remember is that this family entered this country legally. They also made a genuine effort to obey the law to stay here. It is an interesting fact that among my friends, the biggest supporters of legal immigration and controlling our borders are those who took the time and expense to be here legally.

They have already written dozens of stories about Hispanics having these problems. So finally a story about a white, Norman from the old home country.

Poor immigration laws are equally harmful to anyone.

Quick question for the Chaffetz supporters, who I know are going to read any story related to immigration. Are these people prime candidates for your tent cities for all illegals?

Round'em up!

Embarrassingly oversimplified. We do not need Chaffetz and his extreme rhetoric. I'm a life long Republican who is voting for the Democrat this fall.

Who cares if the family was white, Asian, Hispanic, or Vulcan. This story seems to be "case in point" about a failed legal system. The freedoms we enjoy are protected by laws - laws that are so absurdly complex that the common man, desiring to abide by the law, cannot navigate them alone. (And our trained lawyers may not be able to, either!) Are we part of such a well-ordered (exclusive) society that decisions of such significance should hinge irrevocably on a piece of paper?

Oh come on, CHL. You know if these people were Hispanic, you would have no sympathy whatsoever. They would merely be "ILLEGALS" and you would see the "bad lawyer" excuse as flimsy as it is. These people are here illegally. They broke the law. Why aren't you calling for their ouster?

No need to say "ship 'em back" because they already understand they can't stay legally. The story specifically says they have a plan to return to their home. Get over your pathetic self. These guys are following the law. I can't say the same for all the people who enter illegally, or stay illegally. These Brits won't stay illegally, but would like a review - as permitted by law - so they can stay legally. Do you get the LEGAL difference?

The important thing to remember is that many so-called "illegals" enter the country this way: on a temporary visa or a work permit. It is the most common way of getting in. Only the racist "BUILD A GIANT 5,000 FOOT TALL WALL ON THE MEXICAN BORDER" people don't realize this, and are taken for every penny by so-called Hot Air Balloon investment people.

This story has more hot air in it than those balloons or the fascist border patrollers put together.

As a "White" and "LDS" "American" I have to say there does seem to be a lot of Racism in these comments! The Deseret News wrote the story as an example that more than hispanics are involved with this problem of immigration. Many comments DO SHOW that all most americans want is for those who are here to be, work, play, and visit here, to do it under the laws of the government which is supposed to be "By the people, for the people, and of the people". When you are here on a VISA or illeaglly you are not "One Of US" therefor part of us, meaning of the PEOPLE who represent the government BY the people, FOR the People or OF the People, YOU ARE A WELCOME Visitor with a Visa or Green Card, or an INVADER if here illeaglly, it is that simple. This has NOTHING to do with race, creed, religion, or anything else. I am sorry, it just doesn't no matter how you slice it.

Oops they are white, educated people and their lawyer screwed up - so send them home. We only want uneducated, non english speaking immigrants that are also illegal as they can be more easily exploited by greeding employers

Small, racist minds perceive only the racial differences between this case and the typical Hispanic immigration cases. They are blind to the legal differences. I am aware of immigration cases involving Hispanic individuals where actions to these were taken to assist, by Utah Congressional representatives. It helps a lot if you can prove you have a job and no criminal record.

who is the lawyer so i can avoid this law firm when i try to get my legal status?

Of course this kind of thing happens to other people besides white LDS families. This is just an article of interest. I do feel that the "publicity" (for lack of a better word) provided by this kind of story would be beneficial to anyone facing immigration difficulties.
To me, this article seemed to be written with an informative focus, and the writer used the story of the Owen's family as a narrative with direct application to the information he wanted to publish. Notice how the article, while touching on human interest elements of the situation (ie: the girl’s educational goals) goes on to point out how mistakes were made and how to address -and- prevent them.
Many other articles I have read concerning immigration recently haven’t even tried to define the individuals involved, keeping "Illegals" a faceless crowd, and therefore easily labeled and dismissed by the public. Articles like that make it all too easy for us to over-generalize and cry "Send them home!"
Most people I know don’t realize that immigrants come from all over the world, not just Hispanic/Latin countries.
I'd like to see this become a series of articles following several families or individuals facing immigration difficulties.

If a lawyer who has worked in the system for 24 years is still learning "every day" because of how complex it all is, how can the average person expect to get it right? My sister and her husband were sent back to Canada because of a lawyer error after coming here legally and doing everything right. They got an education here, paid thousands of dollars in income tax for 4 years, contributed to the community and lost everything they had worked so hard for. Don't we hire lawyers because we AREN'T savvy? I did it legally too and hated every minute of it because I was treated like I was someone who had come here to rip off the United States. We definitely need REFORM to protect those who are trying to do it the right way!

There sure is opportunity for comedy on this one.
But the lesson is clear: if the legal process is
a deliberate and baffling process whose intent is
to make it as difficult as possible to prevent entry to
the legal then illegal is the only logical
option.

This whole story is wierd. The young woman can still attend BYU whether she is from England or South Jordan. The fees will be the same as it is a private school, so why is this presented as a hardship in the story. And with our Nation entering a recession/depression, a hot-air balloon business probably won't survive, they will be out of work regardless and will have to return to England anyway. Maybe this is God giving them a chance to sell their business while there is still some equity in it and is a blessing in disquise??? I served my mission in England, its a great place, why is it so hard for them to return to their home??? This type of thing happens to many Americans as well. The dad gets a job in a neighboring state. After working there a while, it doesn't work out, and they end up leaving the state after all. It's life. Why get a Senator involved???

The important thing to remember is that we are cracking down on ILLEGAL immigration. Not just immigration in general. It's the diversity and skills that these people bring that makes our nation great.

Having said that, what we need to do now is convince our yahoos in congress to simplify the laws. It needs to be about ten thousand times easier to get in legally. Then we would be justified in agressively deporting anyone who does come in the front door.

This is a great example of a family with enough integrity to return to their home country and proceed through the red tape in a legal fashion.

They will be blessed for their honesty and integrity even if the circumstances are a trial to them. Too bad their are so many posters on this board who believe honesty and integrity are only situational values. I applaud the Owen family for their integrity in the face of adversity.

There must be more to this story than simple attorney error. Based on the information given, it appears that the family entered the U.S. using a non-immigrant visa for the purpose of managing an investment (a so called E visa). Typically, this type of visa requires that the investment made be substantial, that the investor is coming to directly manage the business and that the stay is temporary in nature even though one may stay for several years with this type of visa. If the balloon business is still viable, a return to their permanent residence in Great Britain and re-application at the Embassy in London for a new E visa should be an easy thing to do. If they are involving lawyers and Senator Hatch's office (by the way immigration enforcement is an Executive Branch duty not a Legislative branch) it suggests that they are asking for something more complicated than a simple extension of their non-immigrant visa. What's the whole story?

I'd get started on applying for an education visa, if I were that girl.

Since I know this good family I can tell you the article- while good- could only tell a small portion of the whole story.This family came here wanting one thing from America...to raise thier family with the freedoms and opportunities America has to offer by working for it..no hand outs. They have worked hard (very hard) for all that they own(entered America with 2 suitcases each) and now are trying to sell everything they own to obey the law. Yet what they have given and will leave behind is a legacy. They came into our neighborhood/community and reminded us to be grateful for this beautiful country,for the freedoms we have become complacent to, they did this by example...no soap boxes. They reminded us by the way they live to acknowledge Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and to thank them continually for their love and mercy.
If the Owen family must return to Great Britian they have the faith and strength to do well, but if they stay, we, as a neighborhood, as a community and as a country will be greatly rewarded by their contribution and good example. This, I believe, are the kind of immigrants America should keep.

Imagine that, they speak English, what a novel concept. Granted they grew up speaking English but still.

This yet again proves that the government has gone mad. They should work on real problems and let these little petty “paper errors” work themselves out. This is ridiculous !
Come on, elected officials … get it right !!!!

I'd bet $50 that if they were Mexican, Chinese or of some other origin besides Great Brittain Hatch wouldn't have even taken their phone call.

There are some things that don't make sense to me:

1. the girl can apply for a student visa while in Great Britain and attend LDSBC without any problem.

2. they didn't come from Africa or some latin third world country. Are you telling me there are no freedoms in Great Britain?

3. I have done the paperwork myself. If you speak english and get access to the internet, filling out the forms is actually not that complicated, it's time consuming, but not a puzzle. You hire a lawyer when you need to present your case to lawyer, you don't speak english or you are in risk of deportation. An inmigration lawyer told that to myself.

Yes, we have a big problem!

No. No tenemos una problema!

How sad for them, hopefully this works out. It shows that our immigration policy and bureaucracy is in poor shape. We need to raise limits on #'s of permitted entries for a start. Still, every country has problems like this, paperwork stinks.

The difference between this family and a typical Mexican illegal-immigrant family is that this family will return to their generally-happy life in the UK rather than stay here and live off the grid. Most of those from Mexico will do the opposite because they see life here, even in "the shadows" as folks like to describe it, as a better option than going home. I don't like it, but I get it, and we need to clean up the mess for the benefit of all.

Their visas expired and so the entire family has to return to Great Britain for at least 6 months and possibly 2 years before they can apply for another visa, including a student visa.

It doesn't matter that the young lady has been accepted to a college, this is an immigration issue and they are being kicked out of the country.

I wouldn't contact Sen. Hatch, I would contact Rep. Matheson. In my experience, Rep. Matheson is more willing to help then any other federal elected official from Utah.

The suggestion that Hatch only helped this family because they’re white is ludicrous. The senator’s office was crucial in the adoption of our son from Tonga, a two month ordeal. My wife’s native, while I’m a legal immigrant from the island and I'm brown as nutmeg. The real problem here is our immigration policy and the bureaucrats that infect that department. The immigration departments for both countries threw up a ton of road blocks and they don’t care about your story, as evident by this family. Here you have a family invested in this country and we’re telling them to go home. They built a business, got educated and want to stay and we’re telling them no over some stupid paperwork. This is the kind of public service you receive from government workers. They have no accountability, no initiative, no responsibility and no reason to help anyone. Those that do are too few.

I agree with CATS (4:14 a.m.) They came here LEGALLY and hired an attorney to try to do everything in the right way. There is a VAST difference in the way they entered the country and the millions we have here who cross our borders ILLEGALLY, steal Social Security numbers from LEGAL CITIZENS OF OUR COUNTRY, use all our resources paid by LEGAL TAXPAYERS OF OUR COUNTRY, and then refuse to learn to speak the language or assimilate into our culture, including flying their own flag above our own. If their culture is so important to them, why don't they stay in their own country and not ILLEGALLY enter ours and disparage it at every opportunity? This is not a racist rant against any particular ethnic group; I have no problem with anyone coming into our country LEGALLY, be they white, black, Hispanic, Chinese or whatever. But I do have a problem when others enter our country ILLEGALLY and then literally spit on our flag and other symbols of our country while holding their hands out for yet another benefit of living here.

My daughter has ALWAYS been legally in the States. BYU and her LDS mission in between. Then she happens to fall in love with a young man from Utah. Both BYU graduates... I personally took my daughter to the SLC office to begin her Green Card process. In the mean time our family moved back to Europe. IT TOOK THE US BUREUCRATS SEVEN YEARS TO PROCESS HER PAPERS. She finally got her Green Card last December. We contacted Hatch's office TWICE, Cannon's office, Bennett's office... BUT NO HELP.
Simply said - the Homeland Security/FBI etc. are NOT what they should be. A clear case of a BYU grad, RM, ALWAYS LEGAL, from a Western European country that is THE SAFEST in the world as a threat to the US... 7 years!!

To Mr. Ortiz and SLC'er,

I have read articles in the Deseret News about the situation a college student born in Venezuela was in who had found out they were an undocumented immigrant, a fact they had not even known.

Also, why you are so obsessed about religious dichotomy I am not sure. There are some white Catholics in Utah, more so if you count Italians as white, and there are definantly Hispanic LDS people.

Personally I think anything that shows people the way of Spencer is the way of caring while the policies of his opponant would be blanket deportation is a good thing.

To Cats,

Would you ever believe that a Hispanic had come into the US legally? I am not thinking so. Most of the September 11th hijackers came here legally. If you want to be opposed to those who endanger America the most, you should go after people who overstay their visas, not those who sneak in.

Most undocumented workers do not steal peoples identities. Your hate filled rhetoric explains why integration of Hispanics into English speaking wards so rarely works, you assume they must all be a bunch of sneaking, low-down, good for nothing people and despise them.

And to GUs, you statement is just ignorant. You ignore how many hard working safe builders have been shipped south of the border without any warning even to their families. How would you like to have to explain to your children what was so wrong about Daddy building safes that he has been sent to some foriegn land that they have never seen.

Here, here. They followed the laws. They shouldn't be punished for an honest mistake, it doesn't matter what race they are! And what kind of message does this send to everyone who wants to be here legally but are afraid it's too hard.

To CP,

You are the one who yells racist too much. Utah whites will stop at nothing of accusing anyone who does not accept their ability to say mean and malighning things about everyone else to be racist.

The fact of the matter is that people in Mexico have a much time getting a short term or education visa than someone from Brittain. A Mexican who applied for a short term enterprise visa to start up a taco stand would probably get turned down flat on the assumption they would not leave if they did not get a permanent visa. You people have ignored the inequality in the system.

Also, with each country only having the same number of visas available annually, it is harder for a given Mexican to get in the United States because there are about 50% more people from Mexico than the UK.

Beyond this, the visa laws were altered in the early 1990s to make it easier for western European to get in the United States.

Those who try to say "these people were totally legal but that other group is just a bunch of sneaking no good blankety blank blanks" ignore a major issue.

The immigration laws for the United States are racist. In the early 1990s it was decided that the system had allowed for too many people from some areas. A new clause was added to give preference to people from "under-represented areas". The intent behind this law was to increase the number of immigrants from Ireland, the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Germany and other western European nations. It has also actually helped immigration of some people from Africa, but it has made it harder for Mexicans to have a chance to immigrate legally.

You ignore the racism inherent in the system.

These are the kind of immigrants that the majority of conservatives are in favor of. They came legally. They work hard. They love this country. They’re law abiding and are not taxing the system looking for handouts. Many of us are concerned because we are being affected by the chaos created by illegal immigration. We see the unnecessary crime, as evidenced by the slaying of a little girl last week. We see many illegals refusing to assimilate and insisting that we conform to them. We see our education and health care systems being taxed. Who can forget the immigration rallies where the majority of protestors were flying their native flags and demanding that we acknowledge them and grant them rights. That’s insulting. Many of us just want a sane immigration policy that is fair, not this haphazard one we currently must live with.

Just another day at the job ... lawyer screwed up and family suffering. Isn't this a familiar story in our U>S of A. Lawyer take money, family suffer, lawyer not punish and represent another immigration customer.

Family asked Hatch for help, if he fails, story shift to him (Hatch) and lawyer hidding or representing another customer...put these lawyers in prison when they steal from the people and not delivered...sorry not include all the good lawyers out there.