BOISE, Idaho (AP) - What to know about how President Barack Obama’s plans to spare nearly 5 million living in the U.S. illegally from deportation affect Idaho:
POLITICAL REACTION
Idaho’s Republican congressional delegation immediately lashed out against the president’s executive order.
GOP U.S. Reps. Mike Simpson and Raul Labrador called the president’s executive order illegal, and they urged Congress to defend the U.S. Constitution.
“We cannot shut down the government, impeach the President, or allow this issue to impede progress on deficit reduction, tax reform, or other critical priorities for the American people. Instead, we should fight this edict early next year in any realistic way we can, fight the President in the courts, and move expeditiously to enact a more responsible, effective and lasting approach to immigration reform,” Simpson said in a prepared statement.
Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo has called on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to consider legislation to prohibit the president from implementing the reforms.
“No one should gain any advantage or benefit toward citizenship or legal permanent resident status because of illegal entry into the United States. The unilateral legal protections provided lawlessly to millions of illegal immigrants by the President -benefits that legal immigrants must wait years to obtain- pose a profound threat to our immigration system and rule of law, discouraging those who seek to come to America from doing so legally,” Crapo said in a statement he released shortly after Obama finished his speech Thursday evening.
U.S. Sen. Jim Risch also denounced Obama’s plans, and he described the president’s actions as “disturbing.”
HOW MANY ARE AFFECTED
Under Obama’s plan, deportation protections would be extended to parents of U.S. citizens and permanent residents who have lived in the country at least five years. According to the Washington D.C.-based Migration Policy Institute, 75 percent of immigrants living in Idaho illegally had lived in Idaho for more than five years and 45 percent live with at least one U.S. citizen child.
IDAHO’S RISING IMMIGRATION POPULATION
Idaho was one of seven states where the number of unauthorized immigrants increased between 2009 and 2012, according to a recent report released by the Pew Research Center. The report estimated Idaho’s unauthorized immigrant population increased to 50,000 as of 2012, up from 35,000 in 2009.
CALLS FOR LEGISLATION
Catholic Charities of Idaho - one of the few nonprofits that provides immigration services in Idaho- welcomed Obama’s executive action, but the agency urged the need for a long-term solution to a “broken system.”
“We renew our call for congressional action for comprehensive reform that will provide workers with a path to permanent citizenship, prevent families from being split up and protect children coming from violence stricken homelands,” the organization said Friday.
Idaho Dairymen’s Association Executive Director Bob Naerebout said he didn’t see Obama’s executive order immediately affecting Idaho’s multibillion dollar dairy industry. However, he, too, said that the solution to preventing uncertainty regarding immigration needs to come from Congress passing legislation.
“It’s at the doorsteps of the Republican Party,” he said. “We have to have legislation.”
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