MAGIC VALLEY (Idaho) TIMES-NEWS

February 21, 2008

Magic Valley dairies working on immigration reform

By Jared S. Hopkins
Times-News writer

BOISE - Presidential candidates aren't the only ones with immigration on the mind.

The Idaho Dairymen's Association says it's forming a business coalition to address illegal immigration. Officials said the coalition will educate people and push for stable immigration policy on the national level.

"Immigration reform is important to the economy of Idaho and the United States," said IDA Executive Director Bob Naerebout. "Our goal is to protect the borders but also to promote responsible immigration reform."

There are an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States. A 2006 study by the non-partisan Pew Hispanic Center found there were between 20,000 and 35,000 illegal immigrants in Idaho.

In December, the organization hired immigration attorney Raul Labrador, a state legislator from Eagle, for advising. Labrador, who has done immigration law for more than a decade, has met twice with the IDA. He was paid but is not on a retainer, said Naerebout.

"He's a very good immigration attorney and it's his specialty," said Naerebout. "So we hired him."

Both the IDA and Labrador say there is no conflict of interest for two reasons. Immigration is a federal, not state, issue, and he's decided to recuse himself from any dairy-sponsored legislation. Labrador said he also received an opinion from the state's attorney general's office.

"The coalition is trying to help our Congressional delegation and develop a system that works," he said. "It's important to every industry in our country."

Labrador said he's had clients in the Magic Valley, which has more dairies than any other region in the state. In November 2007, more than 100 illegal immigrants in the Twin Falls area were arrested by U.S. Border Patrol agents investigating human smuggling on commercial bud lines.

The IDA efforts are in "developmental stages," Naerebout said. He added that Labrador, who came recommended by several dairy owners, was hired to inform the organization and that its members understand the regulations and issues related to immigration reform.

Labrador referenced unsuccessful federal legislation that would have expanded a guest worker program - currently for seasonal workers or sheep workers, he said - to workers at dairies, which operate year-round.

Still, it remains unclear how any policy change at the federal level, regardless of the IDA's involvement, could impact workers in Idaho and the Magic Valley because there isn't information tracking illegal immigrants, said Idaho Department of Labor Spokesman Bob Fick.

"That's the problem with the entire debate of immigration from the standpoint of labor," he said. "There's no statistical information about what exactly the circumstance is."