Governor Little discusses illegal immigration on News Talk KBOI
BOISE, Idaho (CBS2) — News talk KBOI and Governor Brad Little fielded questions from listeners on Thursday morning. One of the topics discussed was illegal immigration, and Little pushed for congress to address the issue.
"I assume, well I'm certain, that there's undocumented individuals, and frankly there's a lot of them from many countries. A lot of the people that are here that are not fully legal are people that came on a work visa, a student visa, and that's why congress needs to address this issue. It just screams for a change in how we do things."
When asked if Idaho agriculture operations could function completely without illegal immigrants, Little even suggested a solution to increase legal immigration routes.
"If they continue, there's a program, a legal program, the H2A program, and there's a lot of H2A workers in Idaho. The solution to comprehensive immigration is to expand the H2A program and then create an incentive to where there aren't people coming in here undocumented."
The H2A program allows agriculture employers to hire foreign workers on a temporary basis when there are not enough US workers available. The work must be full time and temporary to qualify.
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