Idaho Republicans Plead with Biden to Flood U.S. Labor Market with More Foreign Workers, Approve Amnesty

FILE - In this June 16, 2020, file photo, workers at an orchard put on equipment as they p
AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File

Republicans in the Idaho legislature are looking to approve a resolution that would ask President Joe Biden, as well as Congress, to flood the United States labor market with more foreign workers as well as to grant an amnesty that would give green cards to millions of illegal aliens holding American jobs.

A resolution, authored by State Sen. Jim Guthrie (R) and cosponsored by State Sens. Treg Bernt (R), Linda Hartgen (R), and Chuck Winder (R), asks the federal government to stem the flow of illegal immigration by requiring E-Verify for employers, among other things, while also expanding the number of foreign workers business can import to take mostly working class, blue-collar jobs.

The goal, the resolution states, ought to be to fill U.S. jobs with a constant stream of foreign workers. Amnesty, which would reward illegal aliens with work permits and green cards, should be part of any such legislation, the Republicans write in the resolution:

it is incumbent upon the Congress and President of the United States to strengthen our national security and the security of the several states, including Idaho, by adopting targeted, common sense, business-focused, market-driven immigration reform, which at its core must include the following: [Emphasis added]

An effective guestworker program that meets the labor needs and demands of year-round agriculture, construction, hospitality, food processing, manufacturing, technology and other market sectors, and in particular allows cyclical worker visas of adequate length to meet the labor demands of Idaho agriculture and business; [Emphasis added]

An effective process by which persons currently present in the United States without lawful status and who are gainfully employed and their immediate family can obtain work authorization or residency status, without a pathway to United States citizenship, provided said persons have no criminal history beyond their immigration-related violations, and provided further that an appropriate fine is assessed and paid in satisfaction of their immigration-related violations; [Emphasis added]

Republican State Reps. Judy Boyle, Chenele Dixon, Rod Furniss, Stephanie Mickelsen, Jack Nelsen, Jerald Raymond, Lori McCann, and Melissa Durrant are also cosponsoring the resolution.

The legislators claim that Idaho’s economy is “threatened and harmed by the unavailability of lawful labor needed to harvest, process, and transport our domestic food supply, to extract mineral, gas, oil, and timber resources, to build homes, businesses and highways, and to provide other basic life necessities,” even as nearly 26,000 Idahoans remain jobless.

Most illegal aliens holding farm jobs in the United States, the Idaho Republicans write, are “hard workers, pay taxes, and are critical to the economic production of domestic business,” suggesting that “it would be impractical to incarcerate or deport” such illegal aliens “without regard to circumstances.”

The resolution comes as Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID) has tried, but failed, to pass a farmworker amnesty through Congress that would provide more than two million illegal aliens with amnesty.

By the end of last year, big donors to House Republicans and Democrats had rushed a lobbying campaign to get the farmworker amnesty passed in the lame-duck session. That effort likewise failed.

Already, the U.S. gives more than a million green cards to foreign nationals annually in addition to another million temporary work visas to foreign workers. These historically-high, decades-long legal immigration levels are added on top of hundreds of thousands of border crossers and illegal aliens who are being added to the workforce every year after securing work permits.

Millions of working and middle class Americans, Breitbart News has reported, have struggled to re-enter the workforce since the Chinese coronavirus pandemic as the Biden administration has grown the economy by routing about two million foreign workers into American jobs since 2019.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.