Washington • Sen. Jeff Flake said this week he would oppose the nomination of Utahn Ronald Mortensen for a top State Department job overseeing refugees because of his past rhetoric against immigrants, becoming the first Republican senator to publicly balk at President Donald Trump’s pick.
Utah’s senators, Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee, have not said whether they’d back Mortensen, a former foreign service officer who has been highly critical of undocumented immigrants, linking them to higher rates of crime and disease.
Republicans hold a one-seat majority on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which will consider Mortensen’s nomination.