March 12, 2010 in Idaho

Immigration bill clears Idaho Senate committee

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Betsy Russell photo

The Senate State Affairs Committee hears from attorney Maria Andrade midway through a long hearing Friday on SB 1271, the last remaining immigration bill this session, which drew extensive opposition. The committee sent the bill to the Senate’s 14th Order for amendment.
(Full-size photo)

BOISE - Legislation aimed at fighting employment of undocumented immigrants cleared an Idaho Senate committee on Friday, but only after a two-hour hearing that drew extensive testimony overwhelmingly opposed to the bill.

Two earlier, more sweeping measures aimed at penalizing employers both died in committee earlier.

The bill, SB 1271 from Sen. John McGee, R-Caldwell, sets new penalties for using false documents for employment. Among its provisions: Anyone falsifying documents for employment could face 14 years in prison.

Members of the Senate State Affairs Committee voted to amend the bill; though any senator can offer an amendment, Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis, R-Idaho Falls, said he wanted to add an amendment to add an “e-Verify safe harbor,” a provision like the one in unsuccessful legislation from Sen. Mike Jorgenson, R-Hayden Lake, to absolve employers from sanctions if they use the federal “e-Verify” system to check on an employee’s immigration status.

Brent Olmstead, lobbyist for a coalition of agriculture and business groups, testified in favor of the bill - the only entity other than the bill’s sponsor to testify in favor, while 13 people testified against - but said after the hearing that if Davis’ amendment were added, his group would oppose the bill.

Numerous people who testified said the immigration legislation has stirred up anti-Hispanic sentiment in their communities. Raquel Reyes of the Community Council of Idaho, formerly the Idaho Migrant Council, said, “This bill is creating real tension. … Immigrants … are being harassed because of the color of their skin.”

She told the story of an incident between two schoolchildren; a girl gave a boy a flier about Cinco de Mayo, and when he saw a Mexican flag on it, he said, “You are an illegal alien, I will get my daddy’s gun and shoot you.” The girl was a U.S. citizen and a child of U.S. citizens; the boy was suspended from school for a day. “It is likely he is only repeating what adults are saying,” Reyes told lawmakers.

Davis said the felony penalty and 14-year prison term “sure seems very strong,” but he didn’t propose changing it. Sponsors of the bill said that was intended to apply to those in the business of manufacturing false documents, but as written, if the employee filled in his name on the falsified document, he’d be eligible for that penalty as well.

The bill also includes two-year misdemeanor penalties for employers and employees in false-document cases.

Nine comments on this story so far. Add yours!

• 

  tinybobidaho on March 12 at 1:22 p.m.

  This bill is a joke and it was totaly designed to allow business as usually with the employers hiring illegal aliens for cheap labor, and to let you think they are serious about doing something about this problem. It will do absolutely NOTHING and they know it, that’s why they voted for it. Don’t let these legislators kid you, folks, they are in the pockets of big business, and the only way they can continue to serve ONLY big business is to hoodwink you to keep voting for them in. Boot their butts out, or let’s get an initiative on the ballot and vote on this measure ourselves.

• 

  spokanada on March 12 at 1:59 p.m.

  So these illegal immigrants could get sent to jail for 14 years at our expense. And how is this less of a burden on society?

  Make them legal and have them pay taxes.

• 

  force_vector on March 12 at 3:00 p.m.

  spokanada-

  I agree with your first point. Your second however, not so much (for the second time). Here’s the problem, and it’s a problem for more than just illegal immigrants. The etitlements our country hands out are given in many cases to those who don’t actually contribute tax dollars to the fund. Now before you say, “they pay their taxes, what do you mean?”, let me explain. People who make under a certain dollar thershold on a yearly basis have all the tax money witheld over the year Returned to them. On top of that , they get the EIC which can at times be over $2k. If you make illegals legal, and assume that they will continue to make minimum wage or less (as they likely are now), then not only will they have those taxes returned, but they will also get the EIC and gov’t entitlements. As it is now this country can’t afford to continue propping up it’s own citizens, let alone add more to the ranks of the takee’s. I remember the “survival seeds” comment when we previously disagreed on this subject, but I can tell you I am not an alarmist or an extremist. I am however a realist. I simply cannot see how the country continues down the path of paying out more than it takes in. Ultimately, legalizing illegal immigrants only adds to the problem.

• 

  tinybobidaho on March 12 at 4:37 p.m.

  Yeah, I get a kick out of people who say, “just legalize them, that will solve the problem.” Legalizing someone who has violated the law is like putting a welcome sign on the border to every criminal who wants to come here. They didn’t just get a traffic ticket, they violated federal law, for crying out loud. and coming here illegally was just the first offense! People tend to forget, it’s also a felony to use false documents, so there’s another crime. Only about 4 states still allow illegal aliens to get driver’s licenses, so in those states that don’t, they commit another crime right there. Then they take a job that is also a violation of federal law.

  Right now, all of our state agencies and our schools are having to take massive cuts and the legal citizens of this state are having to suffer because we are spending $200 million a year to support the illegal aliens in this state. Making them legal would mean supporting more of them next year, and more the next, and so on. We already allow 1 million a year to come here to live permanently in this country, plus another 2 million on temporary foreign work visas every year, those of which never leave when their visas expire, adding to the illegal alien count. So, that’s 3 miilion a year not counting the 60,000 a month who come across the border illegally to start with. So, how many do you think we should allow to come here, 3 more million, 3 billion? How many do we need to let come here from third world countries before this nation begins to look just like the country they left behind, poor and poverty stricken?

• 

  spokanada on March 12 at 6:54 p.m.

  only 200 million a year? how much does the war cost? We dont mind rebuilding Iraq and Afghanistan but when it comes to helping people in our own country we get upset.

  Our states are taking massive cuts because they have no idea how to budget. When the economy is good they get a lot of tax money and they spend it all. When the economy is bad, they spend the same amount of money and then say they might have to raise taxes. That’s not an immigration problem, that’s a political problem. And no matter who is in charge, the system is broken.

  Tinybob, thanks for letting us know you value the life of an american more than a mexican. These people have a right to live too. It’s not their fault they were born one mile from the border yet are destined to a life of poverty.

  FV, I get your point. Thanks for being civil.

• 

  tinybobidaho on March 12 at 11:45 p.m.

  only 200 million a year? how much does the war cost? We dont mind rebuilding Iraq and Afghanistan but when it comes to helping people in our own country we get upset.

  Our states are taking massive cuts because they have no idea how to budget. When the economy is good they get a lot of tax money and they spend it all. When the economy is bad, they spend the same amount of money and then say they might have to raise taxes. That’s not an immigration problem, that’s a political problem. And no matter who is in charge, the system is broken.

  Tinybob, thanks for letting us know you value the life of an american more than a mexican. These people have a right to live too. It’s not their fault they were born one mile from the border yet are destined to a life of poverty.

  FV, I get your point. Thanks for being civil.
  –––––––––––––––––––––––
  What does the war have to do with the $200 million that illegal aliens cost Idaho taxpayers. We have a $240 million shortfall in our budget. Do the math.

  Illegal aliens cost this country $346 billion a year nationwide because we are taking care of the education, medical & social costs of illegal aliens and their families, not to mention the judicial and incarceration costs when they commit crimes. Illegal aliens are not the responsibility of the American people, especially when the first mistake they make is to break our laws to come here, then make demands and ask for civil rights they are not entitled to by our Constitution. Wanting people to come here the legal way doesn’t have anything to do with the value of life. These people are not seeking asylum, they are knowingly breaking federal law. If you think Americans will continue to have the same quality of life if we fill this country up with low-skilled, uneducated foreign nationals, then you are not living in reality. The ones who don’t go to the bother of going through the legal process, are not coming here because they want to be an American. They just want to make money to send back home because they think we owe them a living. We don’t owe them anything. Our ancestors built this country and they formed a government of the people to make this country great. Over the years we have had our own wars to keep it that way. If the illegal aliens had respect for a country’s national sovereignty and a feeling of pride for fighting for a better future, they would stand up and fight for their own country just like we had to do here. But for them, it’s easier to take from others instead and that makes it a little hard for me to feel sorry for them.

• 

  greyhound2 on March 13 at 5:18 a.m.

  Legal immigrants have respect for our laws and play by the rules. Illegal immigrants have no respect for our laws and do not play by the rules. Legal immigrants are welcome. Illegal immigrants are not.

• 

  Brittanicus on March 13 at 4:07 p.m.

  With the onset of President Obama’s push for Amnesty, the opponents are mobilizing to stop this absolutely ridiculous move to legitimize the 20 to 30 million illegal aliens,when 15 million and upwards of citizens and residents are jobless. Anytime that reform rears its ugly head, pro-sovereignty, anti-illegal immigrants organization will get into the fight, even when the economy is sound? But to try and force through this Immigration reform, when millions of American are losing their homes, applying for begrudged unemployment benefit and lining up at food banks. Its just illogical that the Democrats would gather together with a few Republicans to slip through another law to reward illegal immigrants? How can they even dream this up under the circumstances? Most any element of enforcement has always remained underfunded and eyed by politicians who represents corporate welfare to compromise laws.

  HOW CAN THEY SAY THAT THE 1986 LAW IS BROKEN, WHEN IT NEVER WAS ENFORCED? Some of the most talented, skillful politicians-ex attorneys authored that bill, including Liberal personage Ted Kennedy? No! Its just a good excuse to arrange another AMNESTY, because previous administrations failed to secure the border or even try? YOU MIGHT ASK THESE RADICAL POLITICIANS—WHY CHANGE THE 1986 IMMIGRATION BILL, WHEN YOU CAN AMEND IT?

  Next weekend, 100,000 pro-amnesty supporters are expected to flood Washington to show their support for a blanket amnesty. This is why the Sanctuary State of California needs a governor such as Steve Poizner? He has promised to fight illegal immigration and cut-off benefits to the millions settled in the state as does the majority of the “Tea Party” movement. Its time with thought of our own poor, desperate people, instead of taxes being extorted in support of foreign nationals?

  IF YOU BELIEVE IN YOUR NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY AND STOPPING THE ILLEGAL ALIEN INVASION. ONE FLAG—ONE LANGUAGE.

  Get ready for one of the biggest battles of any reform packages that the parties throw at us? Those Patriotic Americans and legal immigrants who believe in Americas sovereignty and desire the borders be firmly secure, heavy funding for immigration enforcement and NO BLANKET AMNESTY. No MORE GOVERNMENT ENTITLEMENTS FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS AND FAMILIES. Become a member of NUMBERSUSA.dot.com MANDATE E-VERIFY. Over a million members and growing. Are you ready to fight against OVERPOPULATION and CHAIN MIGRATION? JUST DO NOT LET UP AT CAUSING YOUR POLITICIANS PALPITATIONS AT 202-224-3121. Don’t forget to give your state lawmakers an ultimatum; NO RE-ELECTION VOTE.

• 

  JVC on March 17 at 12:05 p.m.

  Five years ago you wouldn’t have seen a bill like this on the floor because the lobbying power of construcion would have jumped and suppressed any attempts of the Senate doing away with cheap labor. Out of their sweat and hard labor many employers made their millions; now, its time to do away with these illegal workes since ther are no longer need it.

  The adulteration of public virtue is a sad thing to witness.