The church did not sign the compact, but its statement of support was seen as a de facto endorsement, which directly influenced an effort to head off 1070-like legislation in Utah, where 80 percent of state legislators are Mormons.
Ultimately, the Utah Legislature passed a quartet of bills that include both an enforcement measure and a guest-worker bill, which calls for illegal immigrants to be allowed to pay a fine and remain in the state legally.
Dave Phillips
Stephen Lemons
A frieze on the LDS temple in Mesa, showing Mexican saints in sombreros as they join other nationalities in the "gathering of Israel."
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When Utah Governor Gary Herbert signed the bills, LDS Presiding Bishop H. David Burton attended the ceremony, telling reporters, "Our presence here testifies to the fact that we are appreciative of what has happened in the Legislature this session."
The church also intervened, albeit reluctantly, in the successful recall last fall of prominent Mormon legislator Russell Pearce from Legislative District 18.
Fighting for his political life in a matchup against former LDS stake president and fellow GOPer Jerry Lewis — who opposed 1070 and supported the Utah Compact — Pearce made a glaring error that cost him precious votes in the Mormon stronghold of west Mesa.
During a packed meeting with LD18 Republicans, Pearce claimed the LDS church had given him a green light on 1070.
"I got hold of the church headquarters in Salt Lake," he avowed in an answer to one query. "And they said they absolutely do not oppose what Arizona is doing."
When video of Pearce making the claim was made public, Channel 12 reporter Brahm Resnik asked the church for comment, and the church slapped down Pearce.
While noting that the LDS church had not taken a stand "on any specific immigration legislation in Arizona," church spokesman Michael Purdy said:
"We have made our position on immigration clear. The church believes that an enforcement-only approach is inadequate."
He also restated basic principles the church already had enunciated, including "the commandment to love thy neighbor."
No exit polls were taken to analyze Pearce's eventual 12-point loss to Lewis. However, an ABC 15/Capitol Times survey released days before the election showed Lewis led Pearce among their fellow Mormons, 47.5 percent to 45 percent.
Many local LDS church leaders privately backed Lewis, who himself had been recruited to run by fellow Republican LDS members.
Lewis, along with other prominent local Mormons, has signed the Arizona Accord, the Grand Canyon State's version of the Utah Compact, which reads almost word-for-word like the original.
The effort is spearheaded by Mesa consultant Scott Higginson, who was raised in the church. He said a group of Mesans, including LDS members, met last year to discuss a statewide effort to follow in the footsteps of the Utah Compact.
"We didn't like the image that our city and our people and our faith were being portrayed as," he said.
Though Higginson has various secular reasons for his anti-restrictionist stance on immigration, religious conviction does inform his position. Romney's self-deportation plan does not comport with his views.
"It's not how we should treat other people," he says. "And I don't believe it's the way the Savior would have us treat other people."
Higginson is a Democrat, and Mormon Democrats are a rarity in Arizona.
In general, Mormons are conservative and self-identify as GOPers. A massive study of Mormons in America, released by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, found that 74 percent of LDS members are Republican or lean Republican.
And most of that 74 percent favor Romney, according to a Gallup poll issued in early January. It revealed that 71 percent of GOP Mormons back Romney's candidacy.
But that does not mean that all Republican Mormons follow Romney's nativist stance on immigration.
According to the Pew study, 45 percent of American Mormons said immigrants "strengthen our country because of their hard work and talents" versus 41 percent who described immigrants as a "burden."
Even when the question was narrowed to LDS Republicans, the split favored the restrictionist side only slightly, with 42 percent of LDS GOPers agreeing that immigrants "strengthen" versus 44 percent who find them a "burden."
That's reflected locally in the attitudes of many Republican LDS faithful, including Daryl Williams, a commercial trial attorney who describes himself as "to the right of Genghis Khan."
Williams speaks fluent Spanish and sits on the high council of his Paradise Valley stake. A vocal critic of 1070 and Pearce, he takes a libertarian, free-market approach to the issue, one he's outlined in an influential essay titled simply, "Illegal Immigration."
The essay follows the history of immigration laws and the ebb and flow of the nativist movement in America. It concludes with a discussion of Christian theology and LDS teachings, giving a moral basis for his arguments.
Therein, Williams cites an oft-mentioned LDS Article of Faith emphasizing that Mormons believe in "obeying, honoring and sustaining the law."
He contrasts this with a passage from LDS scripture that suggests crime "should be punished according to the nature of the offense" and that there is a responsibility to bring offenders against "good laws" to justice.
In Williams' view, statutes such as 1070 are "bad laws" because they violate the moral code laid down by Jesus Christ.
"We don't believe you can look at the 12th Article of Faith and say, 'Well, it's the law. We've got to follow it,'" he tells New Times, "any more than Mormons were obligated to support the pogrom in [Nazi] Germany."
