On Friday, the Idaho House of Representatives voted to approve legislation targeted at illegal migrants sections identical to Texas Senate Bill 4 which has been signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott, before being put on hold by a federal appeals court.
The legislation, House Bill 753, passed 53-15 with five Republicans and all the Democrats present voting against it.
Under its terms, it would become a criminal offense for a non-U.S. citizen to enter Idaho directly from a foreign country if they don’t use an official port of entry.
Law enforcement would also gain powers to check immigration status while a magistrate judge would be able to return people in the U.S. illegally to their country of origin.
Illegal migration has become a heated political issue with Donald Trump, the prospective 2024 Republican presidential candidate, making a crackdown one of the key themes of his bid for a third White House term.
The Center for Immigration Studies, which campaigns for tighter border restrictions, estimates that 3.7 million migrants have illegally entered the U.S. since Joe Biden became president in January 2021.
