'We're losing our culture': Idaho lawmakers double down on opposing immigration

BOISE, Idaho — In recent weeks, Republicans around the country responded to public outrage after federal agents killed a Minnesota nurse. People like U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and the Latinas for Trump cofounder said on podcasts or told interviewers that the Trump administration needs to go softer on immigration or potentially risk the midterm elections.

But on Tuesday, in the east wing of the Idaho Capitol, a group of immigration hardliners doubled down during an unofficial event attended by several conservative lawmakers. Lawmakers, as well as a former state official, discussed what they viewed as the economic and cultural harm that immigrants — those here legally and illegally — are causing to Idaho.

“You know what’s great about these type of (events)? We can say whatever we want,” GOP state Sen. Brian Lenney said during the meeting. “This is about demographic replacement, and they’re doing that via refugee resettlement programs, human trafficking and cheap slave labor … I think it’s time to reclaim that moral high ground.”

Lenney did not specify who “they” refers to.

Rep. Dale Hawkins, a Republican, unveiled a slate of legislation that a group of lawmakers plans to pursue in the 2026 legislative session: a bill about what are known as 287(g) police agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an audit of how many undocumented people are in Idaho jails, finding out how many immigrant children are in the school system, and auditing the Idaho refugee resettlement program.

Section 287(g) of the 1996 Immigration and Nationality Act allows local police to enforce some immigration laws if they sign agreements with the federal government.

Hawkins also plans to bring back a bill prohibiting the “concealing, harboring, (and) sheltering” of undocumented immigrants. Hawkins proposed that in 2025, but a House committee killed it after immigration lawyers, the Ada County sheriff and the Catholic Church in Idaho testified in opposition.

“We’re losing our culture as Americans,” Hawkins said Tuesday. “It’s damaging our way of life.”

Rep. Chris Mathias, a Democrat, who attended the event, said none of his constituents have ever voiced concerns about demographic replacement as a “pressing public policy issue they would like our Legislature to address.”

“I would argue that our deep, deep addiction to revenue cuts and tax cuts is probably harming the American Dream more than undocumented immigrants,” Mathias said in an interview.

Immigrants “generated more in taxes then they received in benefits,” at every level of government in every year from 1994 to 2023, according to a February paper from the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank.

Lenney rejected the argument that it was Christian to welcome immigrants. He asked if it was “loving” for someone’s job or house to be “stolen.”

“Is it loving to shove your neighbor’s kids out of the way and give their share of the American dream to foreign nationals and illegal invaders who hate us?” he said.

Hawkins said immigration was the “highest polling issue in the state of Idaho.”

Recent polling from Boise State University showed that a majority of Idahoans think increased ICE presence would harm Idaho agriculture. Idahoans overwhelmingly support a legal pathway for dairy workers who have been in the U.S. for more than a decade and have no criminal history, according to the poll.

Theo Wold, Idaho’s former solicitor general, spoke at Tuesday’s event and promoted it on X. Wold said he had worked on drafting some of the bills. Other Republican lawmakers flanked the people who came up to speak at the podium, standing silently. They included Rep. Clint Hostetler, Rep. Heather Scott, and Sen. Tammy Nichols. Other lawmakers sat in the audience.

On Wednesday, GOP Rep. Jordan Redman introduced a bill to ask people coming to hospitals that accept Medicaid to self-report their immigration status. Wold sent him the proposed bill in 2025, Redman told The Idaho Statesman, but he didn’t have time to propose it until this year.

Redman said the bill is just a transparency measure that he doesn’t think jumps into culture-war debates on immigration. He said he didn’t think it would discourage people from seeking medical care over fears that their immigration status would be looked into, because they would be self-reporting the information, and it wouldn’t be cross-referenced against anything.

“I think it’s semi-benign,” Redman said. “Both party lines can agree that we should have more transparency in government.”

However, state-level actions on immigration can run into roadblocks. The Supreme Court, for example, has often ruled that only the federal government can regulate immigration, according to the University of North Carolina. And an Idaho education official previously told the Statesman that schools can’t ask about students’ immigration status under federal law.

In 2025, Idaho lawmakers introduced a host of anti-immigrant bills, two of which were quickly challenged in court after they became law.

One, sponsored by Redman, prevents some immigrants from accessing public services like prenatal care and crisis counseling. The American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho announced a lawsuit in June targeting part of the law that blocks access to HIV medication. An Idaho judge in July issued a preliminary injunction allowing those immigrants to keep receiving the medication.

Another bill created state-level immigration crimes of illegal entry and illegal reentry, allowing local law enforcement to wade into an area typically reserved for the federal government. The American Civil Liberties Union sued, and a judge granted a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of the state-level crimes.

On Wednesday, GOP Sen. Todd Lakey proposed a bill to strengthen the illegal entry bill the ACLU is suing over.

Lakey said he hadn’t worked with the group that met on Tuesday evening to discuss immigration proposals.

“We may be philosophically aligned, but it wasn’t a coordinated effort,” Lakey said. “Bottom line, somebody that’s here, needs to be here legally, from my perspective…I’m a law and order guy. That’s the bottom line.”