Tough immigration enforcement can be elusive, even in the reddest of states

In 2024, President Trump won Idaho with more than two-thirds of the vote. Only Wyoming and West Virginia were redder on the electoral map. Yet achieving Trump’s top priority — ending illegal immigration — remains an elusive goal even in the Gem State.

You might expect immigration politics to be straightforward in a state so ruby-red — a reliably conservative state far removed from the southern border. But it isn’t so simple.

In Idaho, Republicans control the legislature with six-sevenths majorities in both chambers — an even tighter grip than Democrats have in California. Every statewide and congressional office is now held by Republicans. Democrats have not won a statewide race in 24 years, and they haven’t controlled either chamber of the legislature since the Eisenhower administration.

Nevertheless, even modest immigration bills struggle to survive the legislative process. Over the last two years, conservative lawmakers introduced various measures related to immigration. Among them was a requirement that sheriffs cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement through what are known as 287(g) agreements; a requirement to count the number of illegal immigrants using the criminal justice, health care and public school systems to understand the scope of the cost to the state; and a mandate for Idaho employers to use E-Verify, to confirm that workers are legally authorized to work.

Thanks to various machinations, none of these reached the governor’s desk.

The problem is familiar to anyone who watches Washington: entrenched special interests. Idaho’s agricultural industry — in particular its dairy industry — is politically powerful. It openly acknowledges its reliance on low-cost illegal immigrant labor.

The industry’s representatives, out of one side of their mouths, earnestly insist that they don’t........

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