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A committee in the Idaho Legislature wants a state agency to study the impacts of a mandatory program to verify the legal status and work authorization of Idaho workers and collect data on the number of unauthorized workers in Idaho.
For years, some members of the Legislature have tried to garner support for requiring employers to use the federal E-Verify program to check the immigration status of workers. Legislation introduced this session would punish employers for not using the program and for hiring unauthorized workers with fines and license removals.
The E-Verify bill introduced this session, House Bill 252, hasn’t been scheduled for a public hearing, but the Joint Finance Appropriations Committee, which meets daily to set the budgets for every state agency and department, on Thursday directed the Idaho Department of Labor to provide a report on the impact of illegal immigration on the state’s labor market and the costs and benefits of using E-Verify.
On Wednesday, the joint appropriations committee, made up of 10 members each from the Idaho House and Senate, approved the Idaho Department of Labor budget. The next day, the committee considered adding a directive to the budget that called for the study. The directive was proposed by Rep. Josh Tanner, R-Eagle and passed 17-3. The committee can consider directives like this in the form of “intent language” which is included in a budget to provide directions or clarifications for how certain money is supposed to be used. The budget and intent language have to pass both the Idaho House and Senate and be signed by the governor.
The E-Verify intent language faced strong opposition from Sen. Melissa Wintrow, D-Boise, who warned the committee against going beyond its purpose of setting budgets.
Rick Naerebout, executive director of the Idaho Dairymen’s Association, opposes proposals to require Idaho employers to use the E-Verify system, saying it puts the burden of a border problem on Idaho farmers. Credit: Drew Nash/InvestigateWest
“We are the legislative branch and the Joint Finance and Appropriation Committee reviews budgets and determines how money is spent based on what is requested,” she said. “And I think sometimes intent language can creep into the executive branch, and it's basically us telling the departments what to do, without giving them additional resources to do it.”
The joint committee did not consider adding any money to the Idaho Department of Labor budget for the study.
Wintrow worried that adding intent language to the Department of Labor budget to study E-Verify was a way to get it implemented without legislation.
“There was policy language out there being discussed in the Legislature (on E-Verify),” Wintrow said. “I just want us to be cautious that we're not infringing on the executive branch or trying to work around to get policy somewhere here when we can't get it somewhere else.”
Wintrow also said she doesn’t believe data exists on the number of unauthorized workers in Idaho.
“You're asking the department to collect data on the illegal status of workers, which is not collected, otherwise people would be in jail or deported,” she said.
Rep. Wendy Horman, R-Idaho Falls and co-chair of the committee, said she believed some industries have estimated percentages of the number of unauthorized workers.
“We’ll see what we get back,” Horman said.
Rick Naerebout, executive director for the Idaho Dairymen’s Association, which has been lobbying against a mandatory E-Verify program, said dairymen are curious about the results of such a study.
“We do think that there is a very strong possibility that the study will show that there's going to be negative impacts to Idaho's economy from E-verify,” he said in a phone interview.
Idaho dairies employ over 33,000 workers, and about 90% of them are foreign born, according to the Idaho Dairymen’s Association.
Some states have adopted mandatory E-Verify laws, and data shows it has had little effect on the undocumented worker populations in those states, InvestigateWest previously reported.
Rep. Brent Crane, R-Nampa, declined to comment on whether the E-Verify bill would get a hearing in the House State Affairs Committee, where it was introduced last month.
The Idaho Department of Labor declined to answer questions on how it would study Idaho’s unauthorized workforce and the impact of E-Verify, saying it doesn’t comment on pending legislation.
Tanner did not immediately return a phone call about the intent language.
Rachel Spacek is an investigative reporter covering migrant labor for InvestigateWest through Report for America. She is based in Boise and has covered Latino affairs in Idaho for the last five years.
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