Republican Idaho Gov. Little pushes back on immigration enforcement tactics
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Sarah Cutler, Idaho Statesman
BOISE (Idaho Statesman) — Idaho Gov. Brad Little has been on-board with federal immigration tactics. In June, he signed an agreement to allow Idaho State Police to transport undocumented people convicted of certain crimes into federal custody. After an October immigration raid at a horse-racing track in Wilder, he expressed support.
“Illegal gambling operations involving animals often accompany drug trafficking, animal abuse, illegal weapons trafficking and large sums of money that end up in the hands of cartel bosses,” he said in a statement at the time.
But in a Tuesday conversation with reporters, he struck a different tone.
Asked whether he supported the early February Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrest of a father outside his child’s Boise preschool, he said such arrests are “not my preference.” Idaho prisons are already full, he said, and his immigration enforcement focus has been on getting “dangerous criminals” out of the state.
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As of Tuesday, it was not clear whether the man arrested outside the school had a criminal history. During the arrest, agents denied the man’s request for an arrest warrant or detention order, the Idaho Statesman previously reported.
Little also said he had seen some reporting that suggested that an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Henderson, Nevada, was violating detainees’ due process, though he did not specify how.
“I think that they need to be very careful that they’re not violating due process,” Little said.
Joan Vargas, a spokesperson for Little, clarified after the event that Little had been referring to reporting about ICE’s activities nationwide, and that he did not have concerns about violations in Henderson.
Could Idaho expect to see the same immigration enforcement tactics on its streets that the nation watched unfold in Chicago, Minneapolis and elsewhere?
“That will not happen,” Little said.
He didn’t answer a question about whether the federal government had committed to leaving Idaho largely untouched. But he said Idaho’s ban on “sanctuary cities” — places that limit their cooperation with ICE and other immigration enforcement agencies — would protect it from such enforcement tactics.
He said the federal government should focus on removing “criminals” from the country.
“Literally everybody in Idaho agrees that should happen,” he said.
As Idaho moved to partner with ICE, Little promised that the state would help remove “highly dangerous illegal alien criminals,” and later said that Idaho State Police would target only undocumented immigrants convicted of violent crimes and already set to be deported.
But in November, the Statesman found that only five of about 50 people in Idaho sent to immigration detention centers under the partnership agreement had actually been convicted of violent crimes.