Sen. Mike Jorgenson introduced S1303, a bill requiring all Idaho employers to verify the legal status of new hires by using the federal E-Verify program, along with penalties for noncompliance. E-Verify is successful at causing the self-deportation of illegal immigrants in the states adopting it, most notably Arizona.

The opposition to Jorgenson's bulletproof enforcement legislation is clever. Senator McKenzie's bill, purportedly written by the Idaho Dairymen's Association attorneys, had zero enforcement mechanisms! At least one other weak-on-enforcement bill will be introduced and may contain purposely unConstitutional language. An Idaho state bill with unConstitutional language would be defeated in the courts and they know it!

No tactic is too underhanded for Idaho businesses and legislators when trying to kill meaningful enforcement in order to keep a constant flow of illegal workers!

Cold-hearted illegal immigrant profiteers with their highly paid lobbyists and their enablers in the legislature care nothing about the growing number of Idaho's unemployed. Department of Labor statistics show that there are no jobs Americans will not do, including agriculture -- for living wages. Wages paid to illegal immigrants are suppressed or even decreased when adjusted for the 2010 cost of living!

Many Idaho legislators have no problem loading the social costs of illegal aliens onto the backs of taxpayers. What are these legislators getting in return for exploiting citizens at a cost of $200,000,000 per year?

Demand your legislators show compassion for Idaho's unemployed and citizens struggling to pay their taxes in this terrible economy by endorsing S1303.

DR. DENNIS and CAROLYN COOKE
Coeur d'Alene