Idaho Dispatch

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Illegal Aliens or Foreign Workers in Idaho?

By • June 9, 2024

As our nation’s southern border has been flooded with illegal aliens crossing into the United States over the last few years, a debate on border security, immigration, amnesty, deportation, state versus federal jurisdiction, building a wall, and more has become commonplace among Americans across the country.

Separately, but simultaneously, foreign workers coming to Idaho has also long been a discussed and debated topic. Some claim without allowing these workers, agriculture would greatly suffer as necessary jobs would not be filled. Others say the presence of foreign workers creates a hostile environment for Idahoans who would otherwise fill those job openings.

These two topics recently merged into one very big discussion in the Treasure Valley when a video was shared on May 24 on social media showing three chartered tour busses dropping people off at a strip mall shopping center at Five Mile Road and Fairview Avenue in West Boise. The immediate assumption and allegation were that the busses contained illegal aliens who had either been flown or bussed into the Boise area and were being left, homeless and penniless, in the middle of town.

The busses may have actually been transporting Federal H2A or H2B program foreign guest workers, residing legally in Idaho, into town to go shopping or to visit a restaurant.

In an article from April entitled, No Evidence Illegal Aliens are Being Dumped in Idaho, KLIX radio show host Bill Colley of Twin Falls says,

“People get upset with me when I say they’ve got no evidence illegal aliens are being dropped off in the Magic Valley. It may be happening, but the people getting off buses that you see don’t have a label on their clothes telling you they sneaked across a border.

I’ve been hearing stories about a Mexican-based bus line dropping off people in Twin Falls. The line has terminals throughout the American West. I saw the bus on Sunday. It stopped at the local terminal. Maybe half a dozen people got off. If I could make an assumption, it looked like they were all being greeted by friends or relatives. Even if they’re not American citizens, people are allowed to visit the United States.”

The U.S. Department of Labor H2A program explains,

“Section 218 of the Immigration and Nationality Act authorizes the lawful admission into the United States of temporary, nonimmigrant workers (H-2A workers) to perform agricultural labor or services of a temporary or seasonal nature. Before the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) can approve an employer’s petition for such workers, the employer must file an application with the Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration (ETA) stating, among other things, that there are not sufficient workers who are able, willing, qualified, and available, and that the employment of aliens will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of workers similarly employed in the U.S. Any employer using H-2A workers must have initially attempted to find U.S. workers to fill these jobs.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture further explains,

“The H-2A temporary agricultural program helps employers who anticipate a lack of available domestic workers to bring foreign workers to the U.S. to perform temporary or seasonal agricultural work including, but not limited to, planting, cultivating, or harvesting labor.

Depending on the type of work you need, temporary or seasonal agricultural work can happen on farms, plantations, ranches, nurseries, ranges, greenhouses, orchards, or other similar locations.

Seasonal work is when you need more help than usual because the work is tied to a certain time of year by an event or pattern, like a short annual growing cycle. Temporary work lasts no longer than 1 year. If you have been affected by a strike, work stoppage, or layoff within 60 days of when work will start, you may not qualify for the program.

To participate in the program, you’ll work with your State Workforce Agency to earnestly recruit U.S. workers. The State Workforce Agency will publicly post your job order to recruit U.S. workers. You must accept eligible referrals of U.S. workers who apply for the job, and also contact any former U.S. employees at their last known contact address. When a qualified U.S. worker applies, you must employ them until 50 percent of the work period specified in the work contract has passed. After 50 percent, there is no continued affirmative obligation to hire.”

The U.S. Department of Labor H2B program exists for the purpose of creating temporary visas to allow non-agriculture workforce positions to be filled.

“The H-2B nonimmigrant program permits employers to temporarily hire nonimmigrants to perform nonagricultural labor or services in the United States. The employment must be of a temporary nature for a limited period of time such as a one-time occurrence, seasonal need, peakload need or intermittent need.”

In response to the video posted by Theo Wold on Twitter, assumptions of the immigration status of those who were aboard the busses and outrage spread across the valley.

Nicole Foy, who has written about the H2A program, replied to Wold asking,

“How were you able to confirm their immigration statuses? Especially when this is prime season for buses exactly like that to be transporting workers here on H-2A visas all across Idaho and the mountain west to do farm labor.”

A protest was organized in response to Wold’s tweet. A video of the demonstration can be seen here.

Dorothy Moon, Chair of the Idaho GOP spoke to Colley on his show regarding the video,

In the 2024 Legislative session, the Idaho Legislature took up the illegal immigration issue in the form of House Bill 793 which passed the House, but was not heard in the Senate, and Senate Joint Memorial 102, which did pass both houses and was signed by the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate. The memorial calls upon the President of the United States and the Congress of the United States to take certain actions to reform immigration policies of the U.S. However, a memorial is merely a recommendation and has no force of law or consequence for inaction.

 

Feature photo shows H2A farm workers being dropped off in Caldwell. Courtesy of Idaho Press.

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Tags: Bill Colley, Border Crossing, Border Security, Department of Labor, Dorothy Moon, Farm workers, Guest workers, H2A, H2B, Idaho Legislature, Illegal Aliens, Immigration, Immigration Reform, Nicole Foy, Senate Joint Memorial 102, Theo Wold, U.S, Undocumented Workers

26 thoughts on “Illegal Aliens or Foreign Workers in Idaho?”

  1. I have to agree, at least until it can be proven otherwise, with Nicole Foy. Unless and until these individuals are actually shown to have been vetted, their presence/arrival(s) will remain suspicious to me. I have zero problem with people applying for citizenship and becoming legal U.S. citizens when completing the legal course of action required by law.

    However, when the current occupant of the Oval Office and his entire administration’s corrupt and illegal pattern of behaviors continue to utilize their blatant assault on our country I will take issue with this sort of thing.

    If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck…

    1. Those are 100% illegals.
      They were picked up by vans.
      No shopping, no eating.
      They are not farm workers.

  2. Yes, they are here. Just last week, our worksite was inundated with migrant workers (they didn’t speak English), to tear off the roof and interrupt the work of other trades on the site. Four of them helped themselves to our private portajohn; the fifth had the courtesy to use his smart phone translator to ask permission. This is the Moscow/Pullman metro area. Don’t tell me that this is work others don’t want to do. We have competent and available roofers in the area. Our local chamber members are hypocritical: they want local business, but don’t give it back. They want cheap migrant labor.

  3. Hold on…..WHY were farm workers being dropped in Boise, at a shopping mall, which is faaaaaaaar away from Ag country? Would it not be much more likely that farm workers would be dropped in Caldwell or Nampa, with a liaison waiting for them? It doesn’t make sense to dump them at a random Boise site in the manner shown on the video. There is no bus terminal there. Sorry….but this doesn’t pass the smell test.

  4. We need a state law that makes it illegal to employ any illegal aliens. Massive fines for the company if they’re caught.

    2. You need a state governor that isn’t a RINO and a state government that isn’t trying to fool you.
      Go to :
      “ limitedgov.org “ and discover what a RINO Little is, voting with liberals 56.5% of the time.

  5. Mayorkas’ “border”…, is an invasion. Pure and simple.
    No one wants to face it.
    We need, the skilled workers from Mexico. And skilled they are.
    We must not, absolutely must stop all the others.
    We have NO idea who they are. They do not have the skills of those from the southern adjacent countries. Not only is it a full on invasion, it’s deliberate.

  6. Could this Governor be for illegals?
    Maybe an “honest” sheriff should check out his workers status?
    Also, you think the ”democratic” Boise mayor would be concerned for the interest of the Idaho residents regarding dropping off buses of illegals?
    Check out your local laws on protecting your families and property.
    Biden it’s going to use these illegals to vote!!!!!

  7. Did not look like they were going shopping or to visiting a restaurant. They were all hanging out on the sidewalks with zero shopping bags.

  8. All of you seem to be more worried about farm workers than you do the 130,000 military aged Chinese men that have crossed our borders recently. Look up the Darien Gap in Panama that was facilitating the invasion of the Chinese through NGO’s. You need to worry about the farmlands being bought up by the CCP next to our military facilities. Check out Dr Phil’s interview with President Trump where he shows the map to Trump. That is what you need to focus on. Everything else is a distraction.
    Countries like Venezuela are lowering their crime rates by emptying their mental institutions and prisons to send them here. Granted, no one wants unvetted illegals in our State that came here criminally and are causing an increase in our crime rates but the issue is much worse underneath the surface. Whats going on in DC is outright treason and becoming “normalized” by the DOJ’s refusal to prosecute those responsible. We even have pro-Hamas terrorists freely sitting in Congress while Patriots rot in a DC prison. Did you ever think you would ever live long enough to see that in America? Don’t think these things aren’t coming to Idaho. Wake up.

  9. This isn’t new, this isn’t what deniers demand to prove otherwise, this is an all too familiar scene being repeated daily across America. These are Biden Illegal Aliens being dumped into American cities and towns, urban and rural.

    There is a common theme to this tactic, buses mysteriously showing up in shopping centers and dumping their passengers seemingly without purpose or reason. They loiter waiting for representatives of NGO’s to arrive and provide guidance and accommodations. This video graphically displays the very thing we recently experienced in Lake Ozark, MO.

    Two unmarked buses arrive under the cover of darkness in an under construction shopping center and disgorge their passengers and then depart, leaving them standing in the parking lot. Shortly a group of vans and SUV’s arrive to whisk the assemblage of foreign nationals away.

    One can safely assume that the local chamber of commerce, resort management/ownership, and religious based NGO’s are involved in this dispersal of illegal aliens. Our area is a destination resort area in rural Missouri and is notorious for importing foreign workers and now illegals. These illegals are taking entry level jobs away from the locals that cynics excuse as necessary since americans refuse to do the work. Which I will end by stating is nothing more than a bald face lie.

  10. An article on X says the state water resources agency has shut off water to 550,000 acres of farmland in Idaho. The farms will lose their crops without the water.

    https://x.com/wallstreetapes/status/1799974763475173801?s=10&t=-ybOWByvheF4_I5nHJC1dw

    Now, why do Idaho leaders want to import foreign workers if the farm output is going to decrease? And what is the rationale for the agency’s decision to shut the tap?

    We are seeing food processing plants being destroyed, chickens and now possibly cows being slaughtered, and supply chain infrastructure being destroyed as well.

    I don’t know if Idaho Dispatch has run any articles on the water issue but hopefully the editors will read this comment and discuss the water situation juxtaposed with the immigration concerns by Idaho residents.

  11. I don’t want to hear one more complaint about California or any blue state, ever, when Idaho leaders screw us over with the same tactics Cali “democrats” used to screw Californians over so much they came to Idaho to live as free people.

  12. Idaho IS a magnet state and will be until our leaders pass laws requiring E-VERIFY. What makes NO sense is to spend our money sending troops to the Texas Border to stop illegal immigration, and turn around and not verifying status in our work force..

  13. This is all so much red and blue bullshit. Since 1970, I have lived in WA, AZ & ID, through both Republican and Democratic administrations. None of them want to acknowledge the fact that we need migrant workers to do the jobs that no average American high school graduate wants. Who will change the soiled sheets in hotels, move irrigation pipes, feed dairy cattle, work in meat processing plants, pick produce and fruit?
    I once heard a farmer in SW Idaho say that she couldn’t afford to hire vetted migrant workers because the federal required pay scale was too high, so she hired non documented workers. I totally agree that the Biden administration has Screwed up illegal immigration for 3 years, and now wants to pull a bullshit stunt so they can get re-elected. The solution is to get Congress off their lazy asses to pass legislation to allow more vetted aliens in to do the works that nobody wants to do. I won’t hold my breath while they dilly-dally.

    1. I call bullschit. Our local ranchers and farmers have no problems finding country kids and family to work their operations.

  14. When the released prisoners from South America start their antics and Americans are being murdered, we the people won’t be able to differentiate between an illegal migrant and a Venezuelan cartel/gang member. They will all be considered illegal invaders and treated accordingly.

  15. Spend any time on interstate highways in the west and you will see these busses, always traveling in groups (3 is common), originating in the southern US and traveling north. This federal administration is doing everything in their power to flood illegals into the heart of the US. Why should we give any instance of this any benefit of the doubt? Provide proof that H1b visa holders are grouped at the border and shipped into interior cities. I’m guessing that just doesn’t happen. In fact, I ‘m guessing that aid to those people ends soon after their visa is issued. It’s absolutely ok to assume guilt in these instances.

  16. All elected officials in Idaho who don’t immediately make it priority #1 to pass e-verify, and others bills to stop this invasion in it’s tracts, are 100% complicit, and are traitors.
    How we’ve had 3+ years with the traitor in the wh and the Idaho elected officials have done nothing to stop this is a disgrace!!! What have the sissies in the Idaho house and senate passed to stop this invasion from coming here? Nothing. They’re a bunch of useless sissies.
    This is and should be priority #1, 2 and 3. The countries these people come from are all hellholes, (Mexico is a narco run corrupt hellhole) and the more of them that come here will make it a hellhole here. If you don’t believe me look what they’ve done to any state that they’ve poured into unfettered (see California, Arizona etc). Sorry if your little feelings get hurt by that statement. But that my friend is a proven fact. Period and end of story. Breaking into a country makes you a criminal. Enough of the poor them crap. Enough of the you’re a racist crap. These people are criminal invaders.
    I’d support them 100% to clean out the evil people that run Mexico and have run that country for 100’s of years. Stop voting for communists down there. You get what you vote for. Stop letting evil drug dealers who kidnap and rape children run the country. Throw them out of office and round up the cartels/gangs for trial and then the death penalty. Our government, if not complicit and evil as well, would be helping the Mexican citizens rid their country of the cesspool that runs it.
    What bills have the “Republican” limp wristed, panty waste, lodge members (deceivers) in the house and senate passed to stop this invasion? None that I can see. And would the ole lodge boy in the governors mansion sign it? Or would he have to check with the other deceivers (his overlords) first to find out how best to not sign anything that will stop this mess.

  17. We need a bill to hold accountable the greedy developers and other greedy business owners who only want to hire illegal criminal invaders, instead of United States citizens. These developers and business owners are traitors. All they care about is money and they never have enough. Caring about the country or Idaho never crosses these traitors minds. They couldn’t care less that they are actively involved in the destruction of this country. They only hire these criminal illegal invaders because they can exploit them and pay them next to nothing, which is wrong. They want hard work for substandard wages because they’re really greedy. If it was up to these blood suckers they’d have a 500 unit apartment building on every corner, in every town of the US, as long as their pockets are filled. It’s never enough.

    The bill needs to hit these traitors where it hurts most, their pocket book. Any greedy developer or greedy business owner, who hires an illegal criminal invader (knowingly or unknowingly) is subject to the highest fines ($100,000 first offense and then it goes way up from there) and revocation of doing business in this state and prison time of 30 days then up from there.

    Let’s see if the house and senate in Idaho will finally wake up and make a constant noise morning, noon and night until they force the rinos to finally sign a bill to stop this chaos.

    Every interview, written letter, email, etc that any serious legislator puts out to the public should have at least 50% of the message dedicated to this urgent crises.

    Lastly, we need legislation for any criminal illegal invader, or legal citizen, caught with fentanyl, upon conviction is given the death penalty to be carried out in 30 days max. Having fentanyl for distribution means you don’t mind killing others, therefore upon conviction an immediate death penalty is warranted. No exceptions. And, any illegal criminal alien, or legal citizen, who is involved in child trafficking, upon conviction shall be given an immediate death penalty with no exceptions. And in both instances all monies and properties of the executed criminal shall be confiscated and given to the victims asap. Why isn’t legislation like this being crafted? The bills they propose to supposedly fix this issue are way to watered down and are written by two faced rinos with all kinds of loopholes in them so they can do what is written, or not do what is written. They always want an out.

  18. The US Government IS flying in Illegals to ALL 48 States. They have stated so, and we need to have a law on the books, like several other Red states to arrest illegals if found in our state.

    We need to stop this illegal migration into Idaho.

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