Abogados de Inmigracion

About two-thirds of Utah's new immigrants came from abroad and the rest from other states, mainly California. The state's Hispanic population soared to about 270,000 in 2005, up 33.1 percent since 2000. Hispanics contributed about a quarter of the state's growth in the 1990s.

Utah has long had unusual demographics. It has the highest share of married households of any state, the youngest marrying age, the highest birth rate, the largest average household size and the youngest median age. The state is on its third post-World War II baby boom and is bracing for another one because of immigrants.

Hispanic fertility rates in Utah not only exceed those of non-Hispanic whites here but also those of Hispanics nationally and even of women in Mexico, says Perlich, the University of Utah demographer.

Many Utah immigrants are recent arrivals who come from rural Latin America where birth-control education is non-existent. They're now in a state where large families are the norm and birth control is not part of the public discussion.

Immigrants come first for jobs. Many are lured by the lifestyle.

Rosalia Gutierrez, 32, came from Mexico 15 years ago. She is not a Mormon but enjoys the serenity the family-friendly church instills across the state. "It's a nice place," says Gutierrez, a mother of three who works for a container manufacturer. "It's calm and peaceful."

Immigration has created new challenges for the state, from multilingual classrooms to more unwed teenage mothers.

Public school enrollment increased by 30,000 in the 1990s and another 30,000 in the past two years, says state demographer Robert Spendlove. "We're projecting increases of 150,000 in school-age population in the next 10 years."

Minorities account for about 75 percent of the school enrollment growth since 2000 and Hispanics for 58%.