BOISE, Idaho — Idaho’s agriculture industry has faced labor shortages, and the country’s immigration system has for decades heard calls for reform. Now, two Idaho lawmakers are attempting to find a state-specific solution.

House Bill 297 would create a year-round agricultural guest worker program — for which there is no current federal equivalent. Employers would have to register with the Idaho Department of Labor, and employees would need to complete a background check and submit fingerprints, but be unable to obtain driving privileges. However, there would be no change to their immigration status.

The problem? Leaders from Idaho Gov. Brad Little to the Idaho Dairymen’s Association have acknowledged it will be legally and logistically challenging.

“I don’t see that in my constitution,” Little told reporters at a press conference this week.

Although the program will likely draw a court challenge, according to the bill’s statement of purpose, co-sponsor Britt Raybould, R-Rexburg said that states have “significant latitude” on managing employment law. The program needs a way to identify who is participating, she told the Idaho Statesman in an interview.

“This is an issue that is not going to go away,” Raybould said. “Failure to act or to attempt to try to do something about it is not an option. … I’m not inclined to sit back and just let this problem continue to fester. Idaho’s economy can’t afford it. Our farmers can’t afford it.”

Bill co-sponsor Reps. Jaron Crane, R-Nampa, did not return requests for comment this week from the Statesman.

“This bill, to my knowledge, is the first of its kind in the nation,” Crane told the House Ways and Means committee when he introduced the bill earlier this month. “The federal government’s failure to find a resolution to this issue requires that states are going to seek state-based solutions.”

Labor shortages can pose serious issues for farmers. In 2021, a farmer on the Oregon-Idaho state line lost $180,000 because the business’ guest workers weren’t allowed entry in time for the asparagus harvest, according to The Washington Post.

Dairymen trade group stays neutral

One big issue facing the Idaho dairy industry is the lack of a year-round visa program. The H-2A visa program, which Idaho employers used to bring over 7,000 employees in the last fiscal year, is temporary.

But cows need to be milked multiple times a day, Idaho Dairymen’s Association CEO Rick Naerebout said at a City Club of Boise forum this week. The labor situation in dairy ebbs and flows, he said.

Naerebout appreciated lawmakers’ efforts, but the bill has constitutional issues, he told the Idaho Statesman last week by phone.

“We would struggle to recommend to our members or their employees to participate in the bill,” Naerebout said in an interview. “Clearly, it would create a list of employees and employers that you have an unauthorized worker.”

The bill will at least help drive conversations and “underscore the need for Congress to do something,” he said. In an ideal world, the legislation could create the opportunity for a state pilot program authorized by the federal government, Naerebout added.

The nation’s last comprehensive immigration reform was in 1996, Alycia Moss, legal partner at Hawley Troxell who head’s the firm’s immigration practice, said during this week’s City Club of Boise forum.

“Right now, we have Band-Aid on top of Band-Aid on top of Band-Aid,” Moss said.

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