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Op-Ed: Idaho Republican Legislators Shouldn’t Make Idaho into California – Say No to Illegal Immigrant Labor

By • March 18, 2023

This week, Republicans in the Idaho Legislature advanced a resolution calling upon President Joe Biden, as well as Congress, to grant an amnesty to the millions of illegal immigrants pouring across the border and to flood the United States’ labor market with more foreign workers.

An overwhelming majority of Americans consistently express an opinion that immigration levels are already too high. What’s interesting is these Americans drastically undercount actual immigration numbers.

America admits over 180 million legal foreign national admissions every year. Separately, every year, nearly 2 million legal immigrants enter the United States and obtain immediate lawful permanent residence status (“green cards”). That’s right: We admit the equivalent of the metro population of San Jose, California, every single year.

And so-called guest worker visa programs also produce enormous numbers of immigrants every year. The U.S. admits nearly 900,000 guest workers — and some visa programs enable guest workers to bring their dependent family members — every year.

Something lost on many Americans, as well, is that the vast majority of illegal immigrants present in the U.S. come not from unlawful border crossings, but visa overstays. Nearly 65% of America’s growing unlawful immigrant population entered the country legally but then refused to leave as required by the terms of their visa.

Fundamentally, this issue is about what is right and fair for American workers. Everywhere immigrants are relied upon to fill the workforce, domestic worker labor force participation drops dramatically. Everywhere immigrants are relied upon to fill the workforce, domestic worker compensation — including young workers recently graduated from college — drops dramatically. Everywhere immigrants are relied upon to fill the workforce, welfare spending increases.

The irony of Senate Joint Memorial 101 is that it is written by a number of Republicans who claim to be “fiscal” hawks, who work overtime to reduce the size and cost of government and the intrusion of government in the free market. Yet, there’s no greater growth in government than asking for subsidized workers whose terms of employment — including controls on wage rates — are dictated by government. There’s no greater intrusion in the labor market than asking big government to find subsidized workers through visas.

There’s a simple solution to the workforce shortages identified by Idaho Republican legislators. And it doesn’t require Idaho to adopt the liberal policies of California. It’s called the law of supply and demand. If the demand for the supply of labor is higher, workers should be paid more. And, yet, American workers haven’t seen a real wage increase in 40 years.

Ironically, those stagnant wages coincide with the growth of our illegal immigrant population and the explosion of America’s legal guest worker programs. Putting Idaho’s hardworking men and women first means saying no to more illegal immigration.

By Dorothy Moon, IDGOP Chairwoman

This Op-Ed was submitted by Dorothy Moon. Op-Eds do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of those at the Idaho Dispatch.

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Tags: 2023 Idaho Legislature, 2023 Legislative Session, Amnesty, Idaho GOP, Illegal Aliens, Illegal Immigration, Senate Joint Memorial 101, Supply and Demand, Wages, Workforce

23 thoughts on “Op-Ed: Idaho Republican Legislators Shouldn’t Make Idaho into California – Say No to Illegal Immigrant Labor”

  1. Unless the Liberals such as Winder, Luna, Little, Bekde etc. etc. are censured out of Idaho’s Liberal Republican Party soon, the Actual Conservatives may have to leave the Idaho’s Republican Party and form an Idaho Conservative Party.

    Dorothy we hope you can turn this around, yet the Liberal Quagmire of RINOS seems better to flush than save at the moment.

    1. The majority of Idaho voters love their RINOS and keep reelecting them. Idaho will be Californiated as were Oregon, Washington Arizona and Nevada.The only enemy destroying this nation is our politicians, government employees and the military. No other enemy has bankrupted us, redistributed money to foreign nations and corrupt corporations , stolen our fredoms and liberties and property.

      1. Idaho Freedom Foundation publishes their Freedom Index regularly. It scores our legislators based on their voting records. You can see how each legislator voted on all recent bills. Go to IdahoFreedom.org

    3. The issue with the Republican Party goes far beyond the attacks on what are actual Conservatives such as Little! Leaders from the extreme right like Moon push agendas that the majority of Idahoans do not support which shows by the failure on many extremist candidates to be elected! Removing people like Moon is the only way to save the true Conservative Republican in this State. Lacking that please do form a new party and leave…that would help rational minds to regain control of the state government!

      1. Sounds like you slipped through the cracks from Portland. We need radical republicans and thank god for everyone of them. That’s why Idaho rocks, because we have a lot of radical rights helping us radical citizens push our agenda and freedoms. What we need is turds like yourself to leave ! Your to weak and soft dude ! Radical right rules !
        Molon Labe.

  2. What I’d like to know are the names of each one who’s worked on advancing this resolution in Idaho. They are the ones who need to be put in front of the spotlight so we can all see who is behind this. By not mentioning them in this article, they will continue to go unnoticed, passing along resolutions and bills that this state and our conservative citizens do not need nor do we support.

    Put their names out there each and every time they sponsor liberal crap like this! Perhaps folks will at least remember those names the next time they vote.

    1. The article from Brietbart 4 days ago lists them all. Guthrie is our number leader on getting illegals up here for his farms. There are a number of other republicans on the list too. They do not have Idaho in their best interests, only their wallets. They are self serving RINOs. BTW, Guthrie forgets he represents all of Idaho and refuses to take any emails from those who are not in his voting county.

  3. Sure are plenty of snakes in the grass now days.
    If they are so hell bent on this why would you give a open platform for these people, hell they could be a pedophile and get amnesty. The way the world is now days none of the younger generation wants to work, why not give illegals work permits and if that works out then give them citizenship. If they come for welfare and trouble deport or firing squad. Seeing how Americans just can’t expect little Johnny or Susy to even wait outside for the bus anymore let alone work for that fancy car parked at the school parking lot.

  4. Ammon Bundy received over 100K in the last election.
    Idaho had their chance and was put down like an old dog.
    IACI runs this state. Little and company run this state.
    Republican Central Committees are a joke. Glad I have a garden.
    Glad I won’t live long enough to see the rot that is in the state house come crashing down under the weight of pure greed.
    Have a great day Idaho.

    1. You have a great day also. And move if your so sickened ! I get sick of people talking how bad Idaho is when I’m fact we are a top conservative state. Stop your whining !

  5. Per Breitbart 3/14/23.

    Sen. Jim Guthrie (R)
    Sens. Treg Bernt (R), Linda Hartgen (R), and Chuck Winder (R),
    Judy Boyle
    Chenele Dixon
    Rod Furniss
    Stephanie Mickelsen
    Jack Nelsen
    Jerald Raymond
    Lori McCann
    Melissa Durrant

    Vote them out.

    1. Statements like yours shows that Idaho Dispatch is nothing more than a right wing extremist propaganda machine! Facts and truth mean nothing, logic has gone out the window! Please split the party and for. Your own!

      1. Your last sentence exemplifies how you think…incomplete, inexpressible and makes no sense. The fact we even HAVE this forum is testimony to the freedoms we still enjoy. Many died for this freedom and I will not give it up.

  6. How do you eat an elephant? Rinos and donkeys eat it one bite at a time. Soon the elephant will be consumed.

  7. Dorthy, can you tell us what their reasoning is? I’d like to know what their thinking, other than lining their own pockets or catering to a voting class of people.

  8. R U kidding me!
    PROTECT U.S. sovereignty & Homeland, That Is The Governments Job!
    Build the wall, close the boarder, bring the troops home from illegal wars to guard our boarder First. Lets get this fixed correctly.

    To Idaho Legislators: I am unbelievably disappointed in our Idaho legislators. Do your job in Idaho, giving illegals a pass is Not doing your job.
    If you think this is a good idea, you give illegals your address for a place to live, maybe y’all can relocate to the south of the border.

    Thank you L McAfee for the list of folks Not doing their job.

  9. Great op-ed. Keep up the great work of informing us. We need to weed out the RINOs and elect real conservative Republicans. I would hate to see our State go the way of liberal policies.

  10. Here’s the problem. Immigrant workers are paid less, thus driving down a living wage for the rest of us. After a while, this creates a permanent underclass. Then there’s the remittances back to wherever they came from. This country imports more legal immigrants than all other countries combined. Look at all these work Visas. It’s not that the system doesn’t work as previously legislated. It’s that the system is exploited and taken out of the rule of legislated law. And permanent non citizens are not what our immigration system is about. And if they are illegally here, odds are they will be indentured to the cartels anyway. If our factories and farms need more labor, have them sponsor workers and help them get their Visa processed. Business that uses these people should be responsible for them. If the Visa expires, they should be responsible for that too. Follow the law, and should we need more workers, have them apply for one of the Visas like everybody else has done. See below for all of the different ones we offer. We need to know where these people are instead of losing them in the wind. I’m not blaming anyone or any group of people as a whole, nor am I blaming any business sector. I keep thinking back to 9/11 when we were attacked by Visa overstayers. There is a way to make this work, but people need to follow the law. https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/employment/temporary-worker-visas.html

  11. Before I can agree to anything that Dorothy Moon said about illegal immigration bills; I would like to see a survey of farmers, dairies, and the hospitality industry here in Idaho. Do they have a need for legal immigrant workers that is unfulfilled?
    I have yet to see where these industries are attracting the average domestic high school graduates to do the work.

    I also agree that the Biden open border policy is FUBAR and needs to be stopped. Maybe, we could buy a 30 mile buffer zone from Panama, militarize it, and stop the immigrants; instead of pissing money away everywhere else in the world.

  12. Here in N. Idaho we have thousands of farmers and ranchers, small and large. All of the ones we deal with to get our feed, hay, beef etc. are local family and friend operations. Many run over 1,000 head and farm tens of thousands of acres using local Americans. Unfortunately the likes of our elected liberal Lori McCann’t thinks “it’s only fair” that these as she calls them “undocumented workers” aka ILLEGAL aliens be granted the privilege of obtaining a CDL. Sorry Lori, NO.

    If you are in district 6 be aware of Ms. McCannt’s leftist ideology.

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