On Friday, the Idaho House of Representatives voted to approve legislation targeted at illegal migrants sections identical to Texas Senate Bill 4 which has been signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott, before being put on hold by a federal appeals court.
The legislation, House Bill 753, passed 53-15 with five Republicans and all the Democrats present voting against it. Under its terms, it would become a criminal offense for a non-U.S. citizen to enter Idaho directly from a foreign country if they don’t use an official port of entry. Law enforcement would also gain powers to check immigration status while a magistrate judge would be able to return people in the U.S. illegally to their country of origin.
Illegal migration has become a heated political issue with Donald Trump, the prospective 2024 Republican presidential candidate, making a crackdown one of the key themes of his bid for a third White House term. The Center for Immigration Studies, which campaigns for tighter border restrictions, estimates that 3.7 million migrants have illegally entered the U.S. since Joe Biden became president in January 2021.
Whole sections of the Idaho bill have been directly copied from Texas’s Senate Bill 4 which Governor Abbott signed into law in December 2023.
For example, both contain the text: “A person who is an alien commits an offense if the person enters or attempts to enter this state directly from a foreign nation at any location other than a lawful port of entry.”
On March 26, the Supreme Court agreed Texas Senate Bill 4 could take effect following a 6-3 ruling, but just hours later, it was suspended again by a federal appeals court.
Texas Senate Bill 4 caused controversy as it would give state authorities the power to detain and deport illegal migrants which has typically been seen as a federal responsibility.
Speaking during Friday’s floor debate in the Idaho House, Assistant Minority Leader Lauren Necochea, a Democrat, warned the proposed legislation could run into similar legal difficulties.
SUZANNE CORDEIRO/AFP/GETTY
She said: “The first point I would make is that Idaho as a state does not have the authority to do this; this is the job of the federal government.”
GOP state Representative Jaron Crane, who sponsored House Bill 753, insisted the legislation was “constitutionally sound” and consequently predicted the legal cost to defend it in court would be “zero.”
Advocating for the bill from the floor he said: “This is not targeting any demographic; this is targeting people that are here illegally. If you are here legally you have nothing to worry about.”
In a fresh headache for President Biden’s re-election hopes a recent Associated Press/NORC survey found 68 percent of American adults disapproved of his migration policy, against just 31 percent who approved.
Over the past week, Texan authorities deployed an additional 700 soldiers from the National Guard and Texas Tactical Border Force to the state’s southern border after migrants were filmed breaking through a border fence in footage that went viral on social media.
The incident took place on March 21 with migrants successfully pushing past the fence and National Guard soldiers. Video of the incident was shared on social media by The New York Post where it received millions of views.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.