Brent Olmstead, lobbyist for the Milk Producers of Idaho, said an array of groups oppose HB 497, Rep. Phil Hart's immigration bill, and they include the Food Producers of Idaho, the Idaho Farm Bureau, the Idaho Retailers Association, the Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry, and more. Rep. Brent Crane, R-Nampa, noted that it's just one of three bills on the topic pending in this year's Legislature; he asked Olmstead which bill his coalition, the Idaho Business Coalition for Immigration Reform, is backing. "We will likely as a coalition not support any of them," Olmstead responded. "This is a federal issue."

An Idaho Community Action Network board member, Alicia Clements, also spoke out against the bill, saying "only Congress can deliver" a solution to the immigration issue, and that Hart's bill would simply impose more costs on the state. "It's going to cost us a lot of money that we need for schools and other programs, and ... it's not going to work," she told the committee.