Call raft of anti-immigrant bills what they are: white supremacy | Opinion
“Wingnuts” is a term used to describe Republicans who can be found on the far right of the political spectrum. So where do wingnuts in Idaho gather when they want to spread the gospel of white supremacy and attack immigrants, no matter their legal status?
The east wing of the Idaho Capitol Building, of course, where these immigration hardliners convened recently for an unofficial press conference to whine about damage they perceive to Idaho’s culture, a euphemism for an attack on Latinos. Rep. Dale Hawkins, R-Fernwood, claimed, “We’re losing our culture as Americans; it’s damaging our way of life.”
Or could it be Hawkins just doesn’t think Idaho is white enough?
This press conference was unfortunate for more than the racism it displayed. It also launched a spate of anti-immigrant bills about problems we don’t have with consequences they don’t seem to get. One bill would mandate using the federal E-Verify system to check the status of all immigrants before hiring. Let’s hope they check first with what that has caused in the state of Florida. As a Wall Street Journal editorial recently reported about the Florida economy, “The state passed an E-Verify law. Job growth quickly declined.” Florida went from first in the nation in job growth before passage of the E-Verify law to 26th in just 12 months.
Another of the anti-immigration bills requires the state to identify how many immigrant children are in the school system, as though those kids are the real threat to Idahoans. Not be outdone by Hawkins’ contentious remarks, Sen. Brian Lenney, R-Nampa, sounded off about what he called “demographic replacement.” That’s a term he may have picked up from one of the most famous bigots of the land, Tucker Carlson, who claimed immigration makes America “poorer, and dirtier, and more divided.”
Carlson is right about Americans becoming more divided. His narrative of the “great replacement” conspiracy theory — woven out of whole cloth — produces far-right copycats like these Republican legislators who target immigrants. Lenney bragged that he and his wingnut legislators “could say anything,” a perfect example of how extremists give themselves permission to use vulgar name-calling they seem to have learned from Trump.
These legislative schemes of Lenney and his crew reveal an updated version of the racism that drove whites out of neighborhoods in America when one black family would show up. Lenney spouts his venom against immigrants, and he is elected from Canyon County where generations of Latinos landed, many of them crossing the border to do the work his white neighbors wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole.
These undocumented immigrants sent their kids to Idaho schools so they could share in the American dream. At Boise State, I met students of immigrant parents and watched this new generation of Latino-Americans graduate from college and take jobs many of Lenney’s far-right colleagues would be lucky to get.
As for the parents of those students, they held out hope for a path to citizenship like the bipartisan agreement Congress reached in 2024 that would have done just that for so many immigrants who crossed the border years ago. But Trump told his sycophant Republican majority in Congress not to advance the bill so he could campaign against immigrants in the battle for the White House in 2024. And that now gives Trump’s minions the opportunity to continue the assault on their Latino neighbors.
Lenney thinks “it’s time to reclaim the moral high ground” as though these high priests of white supremacy were elected to rewrite the norms and values Americans have valued over the years. They ignore the history of their beloved American West, nothing but immigrants traveling from the east to settle in Native American lands.
If you want to look for a different Idaho than the white supremacy brand these far-right Republicans represent, look no further than Micron Technology, one of Idaho’s largest employers and a lynchpin of the Idaho economy. It’s led by a CEO who came to America as a student from India, Sanjay Mehrotra. He acquired 3 degrees from the University of California, Berkeley and built the SanDisk corporation before taking the reins at Micron.
Micron’s website includes a section on “global culture and workforce” with the face of a brown man smiling alongside a welcome message: “creating opportunities for all.” It proudly displays “highlights of Micron’s inclusive culture” with a photo of Micron team members with all shades of color represented.
Who in God’s name do these self-appointed judges of our culture think they are that they can redefine America’s greatness today by attacking a culture rich in diversity, as Micron demonstrates on its website and with its hiring policies.
The answer is a simple one. They claim to be the new arbiters of our culture that has taken 250 years to perfect. They would erase from the Statue of Liberty that famous line of Emma Lazuras’ poem, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”.
Don’t buy President Donald Trump’s claim that Republicans are just out to catch illegals who have committed crimes and send them back to their countries of origin. This Idaho contingent of Republican extremists are clear about who they seek to eliminate from this nation of immigrants, and they do not distinguish between legal and illegal. The distinguishing factor remaining is the color of their skin.
The New York Times reported a sad and most revealing story of how Trump Republicans have instilled fear in the hearts of a hard-working undocumented couple, parents of 3 children who graduated from college and are now in stable and productive jobs. Rather than face the violence of ICE tactics, the parents chose to self-deport to Mexico, leaving their children and grandchildren behind. Their decision speaks volumes about the impact of ICE on American families.
Idaho’s culture must not be defined by a small cohort of white nationalists. Our culture is the sum-total of our customs, our way of life and our intellectual achievements. It’s the food, music and art generations of immigrants brought to America. It’s the guacamole and chips, nachos and tacos we downed during the Super Bowl. It’s our Basque traditions and culinary fare that remind us of those who laid some of the cultural foundations of today’s Idaho. It’s the Indian restaurants in Idaho; it’s the Chinese cuisine prepared by a people today whose descendants helped build 19th century Idaho, some then slaughtered or driven out of town for their skin color.
It’s nothing short of embarrassing when extremist legislators gather in the capitol rotunda to divide Idahoans and ignore the history of our state and the American West built by immigrants. This is a moment to reject their dangerous and misleading riffs on Idaho and celebrate the real Idaho. That Idaho showed up at the Olympics in the person of Breezy Johnson of Victor, Idaho who won the USA’s first gold medal in the Olympic downhill race. She did so by competing against athletes from across the globe and no one cared about diversity on the ski hill.
Bob Kustra served as president of Boise State University from 2003 to 2018. He is host of Readers Corner on Boise State Public Radio, a regular columnist for the Idaho Statesman and a contributing columnist for the Chicago Tribune. He served two terms as Illinois lieutenant governor and 10 years as a state legislator.