Idaho Republican Draws Outrage as He Proposes Driver’s Licenses for Illegal Immigrants in Deep Red State with Cheap Labor Influences

Idaho State Senator Jim Guthrie (R), chair of the Senate Agricultural Affairs Committee, introduced Bill 1132 which would allow illegal immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses in the deep-red state of Idaho. This seems like a bill that Democrats would introduce to try to help them with their base. But it seems like certain Republicans are influenced by special interest groups in contradiction to their own voter base.

Local Republicans have expressed their outrage over this bill on social media. This only adds to the disconnect between the Senator’s bill and his constituents’ interests.

Although Idaho is a red state, companies like Chobani are pushing hard to bring immigrants and refugees to the state for cheap labor under the guise of helping the local economy.

Though they may claim to only hire legal immigrants, helping to keep illegal immigrants there increases the likelihood of them becoming citizens eventually which is in the interests of dairy farms and Chobani and other companies who use cheap and often foreign labor in the state.

State Senator Guthrie has previously introduced this bill last year but tabled it as he didn’t believe it was ready and will likely reintroduce it if it fails.

This bill is supported by the Idaho Dairymen’s Association and Associated General Contractors of Idaho which would clearly help them get cheap labor. PODER of Idaho also supports this bill which isn’t at all a surprise as their ‘about us’ on Facebook states, “The DACA committee is here to support DACAmented and Undocumented people. We will provide resources and work on events throughout the year to keep people informed.” An organization with an interest in turning red states blue.

Last year 14 Idaho legislators requested a report from the Office of Performance Evaluations or OPE on how driving privilege programs and specifically whether roads become safer and if pressure on the criminal justice is eased when undocumented immigrants can legally drive.

Evaluator for OPE Casey Petti said,  there’s little conclusive data on how giving undocumented immigrants driver’s licenses affects road safety. OPE doesn’t believe extending driving privileges would significantly reduce the number of undocumented immigrants who are detained by ICE due to traffic stops. This is due to a change in Idaho Code which changed driving without a license from a misdemeanor to an infraction the first two times caught without one.

There seem to be obvious corrupt reasons to allow this and use illegal immigrants for cheap labor to politicians and special interests to enrich themselves in one way or another. Some could say this would be the first step to give illegal immigrants the ability to vote, however, Guthrie claims that it won’t. This begs the question, are Republicans trying to lose?

Allowing illegal immigrants to vote would cost the GOP in elections as illegal immigrants would vote overwhelmingly Democrat based on pew research statistics on how illegal immigrants vote.

We can only hope this bill does not pass as it would be detrimental to the economy for American workers and the future of Idaho.

Stay tuned to Media Right News for more updates.