A controversial bill giving Idaho cops the ability to enforce U.S. immigration laws is heading to the state senate.
House Republicans embraced the proposal Monday morning on a party line vote. It would allow law enforcement to charge someone who’s in the country illegally, but only if they’re being detained or investigated for a separate crime.
Rep. Bruce Skaug (R-Nampa) said his bill doesn’t encourage racial profiling.
“This isn’t going after people that don’t look like us or don’t speak our language,” said Skaug. “This is going after people who are involved potentially or possibly or probably in crimes.”
He said law enforcement also wouldn’t be able to conduct raids at places of business to ask workers for their immigration documents.
House Minority Caucus Chair Todd Achilles (D-Boise) said he’s fully on-board with not “giving sanctuary” to unauthorized immigrants who commit crimes.
However, Achilles said, “We’re not going to fix America’s broken federal immigration system with a questionably constitutional state law that weaken civil rights protections and penalizes Idaho’s most productive industries.”
The first violation would be a misdemeanor with subsequent violations considered felonies. Those convicted for the new crime would be deported.
The proposal mirrors a Texas law that’s currently being held up by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.
“For nearly 150 years, the Supreme Court has held that the power to control immigration—the entry, admission, and removal of noncitizens—is exclusively a federal power,” wrote Chief Judge Priscilla Richman in her 2024 order blocking the law from taking effect.
Ultimately, Richman wrote the state of Texas has not “that it is likely to succeed on the merits” of its case.
Idaho’s bill now heads to the state senate for consideration.
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