The crackdown on immigration is diminishing Idaho bit by bit | Opinion

I feel compelled to address the recent attitudes and actions impacting our immigrant neighbors, both authorized and undocumented.

I don’t think most of us in Idaho would advocate for open or unfettered borders. But we need to face the reality that there will be many people attempting to migrate from other countries due to increasing violence, drought and extreme weather, as well as governmental and economic dysfunction. Can we look in the mirror and see that we all have motivations, needs and goals?

As a second-generation Idahoan, I am surprised and shocked by what is going on in our state. Immigrants are part of our everyday lives regardless of their status. They are our neighbors, our coworkers, our friends.

If an appeal to humanity doesn’t resonate, keep in mind that jobs historically held by immigrants and many soon-to-be vacant positions will leave those of us in Idaho without products and services that we routinely assume are ours to be enjoyed or at least available whenever needed.

What are our options as individuals, states and a nation? This is what we need to collectively decide. We primarily benefit from their presence, their diverse culture and art, and their labor. Our lives would only be diminished without immigrants.

House Bill 83, which the Legislature passed this year. is not a good option and is far too vague. The law is written so that it does not provide due process to immigrants, which is a basic tenet of our country, constitution and democracy afforded to everyone residing within our borders.

I think we could all agree that the United States needs to reform current immigration law. Getting a green card (lawful permanent residency) in the U.S. from Mexico can take over 20 years, depending on the immigration category. For immediate relatives of U.S. citizens like spouses, parents or children, the process is typically faster, yet still takes one to two years.

But for other categories — such as adult children, siblings or employment-based visas — the wait can be much longer due to annual visa caps and backlogs. Mexican applicants often face exorbitantly extended wait times because of high demand and country-specific limits. This system can leave families separated and individuals in limbo for decades.

Nationally, the current administration has deported innocent children with or without their parents. They have deported U.S. citizens as well as authorized student immigrants for simply exercising free speech — another core tenet of our democracy — and possibly worst of all, they are deporting many of them to “gulags” and “concentration camps” as many of the foreign prisons are known.

What do any of us gain by forcefully removing immigrants from our society? If we focus only on their economic contributions — setting aside their humanity — we still stand to lose. They pay taxes which subsidize the social security system while leaving them with no mechanism to be able to utilize the funds that they paid into that system. To be sure, they are a powerful force of economic spending. History has shown that mass deportations never help an economy; they only hurt it.

Is the result worth it?

For me, the answer is clear: treating people inhumanely isn’t worth compromising my principles. I want to start each day knowing I’ve acted with integrity. The specific reason you choose to stand up for immigrants is less important than the fact that you do, because this issue affects all of us and requires a collective response.