One thing I’ll miss as I retire from the Legislature is receiving emails from people across the state. They help me keep my fingers on the pulse of Idaho. When we get a dump of emails generated by an advocacy group, it gives us valuable intel about the campaigns they are running to inform (or misinform) voters. Currently, a group is sowing resentment and division to undermine public investments helping every Idaho community.

The form emails pouring in express opposition to “welfare payments” for unauthorized immigrants. The problem? Unauthorized immigrants aren’t eligible for safety net supports like Medicaid expansion, food stamps, or child care assistance.

The political group behind the emails doesn’t have an immigration plan, so what is their agenda? At its core, their goal is to end public sector investments in the safety net, privatize and ultimately defund K-12 education, and close our public universities and colleges.

Their allegiance to the “free market” is so extreme that they shrug away problems like high costs for families or employers unable to find the skilled workers they need. They are unbothered when the free market alone fails to magically make medical care, child care, homes, groceries, or other necessities affordable because they don’t see these problems as worth solving.

Meanwhile, Idaho voters want solutions that work with a free market so that working families can climb up to the middle class and beyond. In Idaho, 73% of voters want to keep Medicaid expansion in place, and a majority support investments in preschool, child care, and career training so that the next generation of Idahoans can get good jobs with good wages. These investments are building blocks for a strong economy with thriving families.

Since this far-right activist group’s agenda is deeply unpopular, it resorts to scapegoating. A good analogy is imagining a town’s neighborhood swimming pool. It’s wildly popular, but the free-market hardliners want to shut it down. They can’t convince the townspeople that the swimming pool is bad, so they try to convince them that undeserving people enjoy it. If they succeed in their campaign and the town drains the pool, everyone suffers.

The fact is unauthorized immigrants pay payroll taxes (including contributions to Medicare and Social Security, which they are barred from receiving), sales taxes, and property taxes. Because they’re ineligible for many programs, they pay more in taxes than they receive in benefits. But far-right activists won’t say this, as it conflicts with their plan to sow resentment and exploit it to cancel smart investments for everyone.

Resentment and division only weaken us. We must not give in and must hold firm on solutions that benefit all Idahoans.

-- Lauren Necochea
Idaho Democratic Party Chair.