Migrants obtaining supplies this month at a food pantry in Herriman, a Salt Lake City suburb.
By Arian Campo-Flores | Photographs by Kim Raff for WSJ
June 22, 2024 8:00 am ET
HERRIMAN, Utah—When the first migrants began arriving in this affluent suburb tucked in a valley flanked by snow-capped mountains, few took notice. Now, schools and apartment complexes are suddenly filled with newcomers, and Spanish has become a common language heard at the local Walmart.
With no shelters and no federal or state funding to rely on, Herriman officials struggled to respond to the arrivals, many of them from Venezuela. Residents, often drawing on a tradition of service in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, tried to fill the void, operating an English-language learning center and a food pantry.
“It almost felt like it came out of nowhere,” said Lorin Palmer, Herriman’s mayor. “It’s been hard, but we’ve got a community that’s sure trying.”
Record waves of illegal border crossings in recent years have sent tens of thousands of migrants to urban centers including New York, Chicago and nearby Salt Lake City, straining their budgets and services. Arrivals are increasingly making their way to suburbs and small cities across the U.S. that are even less prepared to handle them, forcing communities to improvise responses and sometimes generating hostility.
The number of people with new immigration cases—a proxy for migrant arrivals—has soared in some suburban counties ringing metro areas, according to data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.
A kite festival in Herriman was organized by the local Venezuelan community to help integrate new migrants.
In Denton County, Texas, outside Dallas, those with new cases ballooned 16-fold to 8,632 between 2020 and 2023. In Kane County, Ill., outside Chicago, their number jumped 17-fold to 3,496 over that period, while in Rutherford County, Tenn., outside Nashville, it increased 20-fold to 3,315.
Bradenton, Fla., a city of 57,000 people south of Tampa, has seen its foreign-born population rise sharply, according to census data. At an April meeting, county commissioners sought to assess the impact of unauthorized migrants on the community—hearing from a hospital executive who said such arrivals were taking a financial toll on his facility.
“What options do we have? Obviously we can’t deport people,” said Kevin Van Ostenbridge, one of the commissioners.
Hamilton, Ohio, a city of 63,000 people north of Cincinnati, has witnessed blowback to jumps in the migrant population. After police announced an aggravated-murder charge in April against a man who had entered the U.S. illegally numerous times, Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones pointed to what he called a “border invasion.”
“We’re all border states, we’re all border counties,” he said.
In Utah, where members of the Church of Jesus Christ have a tradition of welcoming refugees, policies are more favorable toward migrants than in many conservative states. Utah allows driving privileges and in-state tuition rates for some unauthorized migrants. In 2010, an array of business, religious and community leaders signed the Utah Compact, a set of principles that includes acknowledging the economic role migrants play.
The rush of arrivals has been so sudden and pronounced that it is testing those principles. Some residents gripe that the newcomers are securing benefits that should go to American citizens. They complain that migrants are burdening schools, which have few Spanish-speaking teachers, and heightening demand in a tight housing market.
A recent alert by the state warned asylum seekers that no shelter space is available and that food banks are at capacity. Unless they have stable connections, it said, “consider another state to settle in the U.S.”
Herriman saw its foreign-born population rise nearly ninefold to about 5,300 between 2015 and 2022.
All of it is playing out in the midst of polarizing debates over illegal immigration in the presidential race and statewide campaigns for Utah governor and U.S. Senate.
“It’s been a lot in a little bit of time for our community,” said Palmer, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ who learned Spanish during a mission in Uruguay. “It’s that fine line of how do we show compassion and support, but at the same time recognize at some point our resources are going to be tapped out.”
Herriman, one of the fastest-growing suburbs of Salt Lake City, roughly doubled in size between 2015 and 2022, when its population reached 59,000, according to census data. The foreign-born population increased nearly ninefold, to about 5,300, over that period.
The number of people with new immigration cases climbed to 12,840 in Salt Lake County, which includes Herriman, in fiscal year 2023, from 752 in fiscal year 2020, according to TRAC data.
Migrants have headed to Herriman for various reasons. Some had friends or family in the area. Others came in search of jobs in construction and service industries—positions in plentiful supply given the Salt Lake City metro area’s unemployment rate of 2.8% in April. Still others heard that Utah was a hospitable place.
Many migrants have found footholds. Victor Hugo Mayoral, a 38-year-old Venezuelan, arrived in March after crossing the border and requesting asylum. He decided to go to Herriman because a childhood friend lives in the city and agreed to provide him lodging.
Venezuelan migrants recently sorted through clothing and supplies at the Herriman food pantry.
Cortney Denison, a volunteer in Herriman, helped a child pick out a toy at the food pantry.
Mayoral, whose wife and two children remain in Venezuela for now, said he was awaiting an employment permit he was told would come soon. For now, he has picked up work doing food delivery and construction. He said he had his Venezuelan university degrees in education and psychology translated and validated in the hope of eventually becoming a teacher, as he was back home.
“I think I can fit in perfectly in this society,” Mayoral said. “With a good job, I can really improve conditions for my family.”
ill, signs of strain are emerging. An early indicator for Mayor Palmer of the scale of new arrivals came last year, when he said the principal of Herriman High School called to say the wave of migrant students was starting to overwhelm the school. The number of students learning English as a second language at the school reached 270 this year, compared with 17 a decade ago, said Kelli Nielsen, who leads the program.
Unable to communicate with students, teachers relied on translation software and visuals. With the help of a community fundraiser, they acquired about 150 sets of earbuds that provide simultaneous translation.
The school set up a hall of flags to recognize the newcomers’ heritage and posted photos of those who passed English proficiency tests, said Laura Visaggio, the multilingual learner coordinator, adding that she considers them an asset to the community.
But Natalie Cline, a member of the State Board of Education, said the demographic change in schools has been disruptive. Teachers are overhauling classroom instruction to accommodate the needs of migrants, and schools are turning into what she called “social welfare centers.”
“The growing needs of this dependency class will eventually outgrow the taxpayers’ ability to keep up with the demand,” Cline said.
Sean Marchant heads a center that offers English classes for migrants. Pins on a world map show where his students hail from, mostly Venezuela.
In October, Palmer convened nonprofits and other organizations to determine migrants’ needs. Among the participants was Sean Marchant, board president of the Columbus Adult Education Center, which got its start providing free English classes in the Salt Lake City area to refugees from Myanmar.
The center’s leaders decided to launch a new English-language center in Herriman that opened in March. It operates with about 250 volunteers and serves some 250 students, Marchant said. But demand is so strong that the waiting list numbers as high as 400.
One student is Erick Sanoja, a 38-year-old Venezuelan who arrived legally last year with his wife and children after his cousin, who lives in Herriman, sponsored him through a humanitarian-parole program. Equipped with employment permits, Sanoja now works at a spray-foam insulation company, and his wife, Nora Muñiz, 37, works at a fast-food restaurant.
Before coming, the couple said they worried about chatter back home that Americans disliked immigrants. What they found instead was a community that made them feel at home, they said.
Erick Sanoja and Nora Muñiz, Venezuelan migrants, said they have been warmly received by the local community after arriving in Herriman last year with their children.
“The goodness and affection that they show toward us is awesome,” Muñiz said.
Athlos Academy, a charter school, operates a food pantry that staff members and parents created after learning that a migrant student was in need. Twice a month families can pick up groceries, along with clothing and other supplies, said Cortney Denison, a volunteer who oversees it.
Election-year politics is a factor. In the Utah gubernatorial race, the Republican challenger Phil Lyman has criticized the incumbent, GOP Gov. Spencer Cox, as soft on immigration for supporting such measures as in-state tuition for some migrants.
“Utah is not spending any state resources to house or provide other basic services for illegal immigrants or asylum seekers,” Cox said in a statement. “Municipalities, local nonprofits, faith-based organizations and schools have been shouldering the burden.”
Palmer said he worries that the nonprofit and volunteer corps is burning out and that Herriman’s generally welcoming posture could invite even more newcomers it isn’t equipped to receive. But he said the city would keep trying to address challenges as best it can.
Palmer recently attended a kite festival organized by a group including Antonio Valbuena, a Venezuelan migrant who arrived in Herriman more than five years ago and is heavily involved in civic activities. The event’s aim was to integrate the city’s migrant and native-born residents.
“It’s about trying to keep the community together,” Palmer said.
Despite the kite festival’s goal of integration, some in Herriman worry that the community’s resources will eventually be tapped out.
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