By: Dennis and Carolyn Cooke

Sen. Mike Jorgenson has introduced S1303, legislation requiring all Idaho employers to verify the legal status of new hires by using E-Verify, with penalties for noncompliance. E-Verify leads to the self-deportation of illegal immigrants in states using it, most notably Arizona.

The opposition to Jorgenson’s bulletproof enforcement legislation is clever. Sen. McKenzie’s bill, purportedly written by the Idaho Dairymen’s Association attorneys, had zero enforcement mechanisms! Another weak-on-enforcement bill will be introduced and may contain purposely unconstitutional language. A bill with unconstitutional language would be defeated in the courts. No tactic is too underhanded for Idaho businesses and legislators when trying to kill meaningful enforcement!

Cold-hearted illegal immigrant profiteers with their highly paid lobbyists and their enablers in the Legislature have demonstrated no compassion for the huge number of Idaho’s unemployed. Department of Labor statistics show that there are no jobs Americans will not do, including agriculture, for living wages. Illegal immigrants’ wages are suppressed or even decreased when adjusted for the 2010 cost of living!

Idaho legislators load the social costs of illegal immigrants onto the backs of taxpayers. What are these legislators getting in return for exploiting citizens for around $200 million per year?

Demand legislators represent Idaho citizens by endorsing S1303.

DENNIS AND CAROLYN COOKE, Coeur d’Alene