What's Idaho's position on illegal immigration? (Boise, Nampa: crime, home, job market)

[SimpleMan]

I currently live in California and will be relocating in about a year and a half, with Boise being one of my top considerations. One of the main reasons for me moving is looking for a better standard of living, and the increased illegal immigrant population here has made the standard of living here bad enough to where I want to leave. States like Oklahoma have the right views on this situation IMO and I'm hoping Idaho has simular views, as I don't want history repeating itself and be driven out of my home once again. Just as a note, I have no problem with any race and have no problem with diversity, as long as they're legal and respectful citizens. Any input is appreciated.

[normsw]

I lived in Idaho in 1996-7-8. Idaho basically has 2 parts: the N. Idaho Panhandle and the rest of the state to the south.
Boise is a pretty good-sized city, the capital, surrounded by suburbia and some agriculture to its west. To the east is the Snake River plain and Idaho Falls, Pocotello, etc along the interstate all the way to Yellowstone. Surprisingly it's higher elevation than N. Idaho and colder in the winter, though Boise is in kind of a banana belt in the southwest corner.Check the Boise website for demographics.
I lived in both Coeur d'Alene and Sandpoint in the Panhandle. CDL is delightful, a retirement haven and tourist destination with a gorgeous lake and surrounded by mts.
Pop. is about 40,000 year round, with a huge resort and town center on lake CDL. Also a large shopping mall north of town a ways. Lots of new housing, recent and current.
Sandpoint is 50 mi. north of there on Lake Pendoreille and is less than half the size although it looks bigger. Also a summer playground and somewhat touristy with the Schweitzer Ski Basin just north of town. Smaller villages and towns are scattered around both areas. (Spokane, Wash. is 15 mi. west of CDL, just over the state line.
North Idaho's elevations at valley level are only around 2000 ft. and the Panhandle is west of the Rockies chain and influenced by the Pacific temp-wise. It does snow some in winter but the bitter cold is usually absent most of the time.
If you need a lot of city facilities, Spokane can provide what N. Idaho can't, slthough CDL has a big state-of-the-art hospital now. Housing is half the price of Calif, or less in outlying areas; so is rent. Work is scarce in the Panhandle, probably not in Boise. Many people commute to Spokane or Post Falls Id. to work.
N. Idaho is more liberal than S. Idaho, just like Calif. The population in the Panhandle is predominately white; minorities are relatively scarce. Not so in Boise.
One more note: the wildlife is fantastic in N. Idaho and ditto for the fishing and huntingl Gun laws are less stringent than Calif.; nearly everone has them. Overall, crime is much lower than Calif., also.
Check out the Silver Valley along the 90 to the east of CDL. You'll find a succession of small, former mining towns strung out for 40 miles all the way to Mullan Pass and Montana. Also a ski area in Kellogg, though smaller than Schweitzer. Property prices there are lower than most anywhere else in the Northwest.
S. Idaho is basically semi-desert; central Idaho is basically mountains and wilderness and N. Idaho is more temperate with mountains and valleys, lakes and huge rivers.

[jufrbo]

Not much has been done about illegals, our infamous Sen. Craig was soft on them because of his ties to big Ag. But he'll be gone soon, (but us senators play little role in that) There are so many farms here, that if there was a huge crackdown on illegals farmers would revolt. But there was a huge bust about a week ago in Twin Falls. There are not nearly as many illegals here as in Cali. However, like most things here, I think that we will do nothing about it and ignore until it gets out of hand. (We're pretty good at ignoring things here)

[bellmalichi]

Originally Posted by simpleman

i currently live in california and will be relocating in about a year and a half, with boise being one of my top considerations. One of the main reasons for me moving is looking for a better standard of living, and the increased illegal immigrant population here has made the standard of living here bad enough to where i want to leave. States like oklahoma have the right views on this situation imo and i'm hoping idaho has simular views, as i don't want history repeating itself and be driven out of my home once again. Just as a note, i have no problem with any race and have no problem with diversity, as long as they're legal and respectful citizens. Any input is appreciated.

there is just as big a problem in idaho now. The mexican people come here and pay $100 for phony greencard and ss# then go to washington or oregon to get a drivers liecence because they don't ask or verifiy the ss# then they take over all the labor jobs such as motel, resterant, landscaping, cabinet and building jobs, i have never seen any roundup and deportation in idaho. I lived in calif. For 10 years and at least they checked employers for them. I too am not racist but with the economy what it is i wish they were not taking over all the employment. I guess when they show the drivers liecence and phony papers that gives employers who know better because of the lack of good english a right to employ them and push out people like you and me

[micrguy]

At least in Boise I never notice what appear to be illegal immigrants. Since moving to Boise it is the first time in many years that I have seen white guys doing landscaping or working as garbage men.

[Trace_Rinaldi]

SM there will be some illegal aliens in and around Boise because of the agriculture, BUT it wont be anything like what your used to in Cali.
Now if you want to be able to spin the radio dial all the way across and not even hear ONE spanish radio station you need to go to N. Idaho.;-)

[stingraynm]

If you live in the Boise area or N. Idaho, you definitely won't be phased by any issues caused by illegal immigrants. As other posters have pointed out, it's mostly in the rural portions of Idaho, particularly Southeast Idaho and the Nampa/Caldwell area.

Also, when I was in high school, I went to a private A-4 school, so we played many of the small communities of Idaho in sports. There was a predominant Mexican and Hispanic population in Parma and Notus. Judging by your post, those towns would make you shudder, and really aren't even worth visiting unless you're an illegal.

The best advice I can give is this: As far as I-84 goes, live east of Meridian and stay in the Boise area. Stay away from the airport, too. Also avoid downtown on weekend nights, because that's when the metro area converges, including Nampa and Caldwell and farther out.

[Jarndyce]

The blame for rampant immigration and economic problems falls squarely on the doorstep of Big Business. NAFTA has been nothing more than an exploding grenade within the middle class, for which the Republicans Congress of the 90s pulled the pin.

Why should we, as Americans, blame hard-working Mexicans for the "problems" that face our nation today? We would not have a nation today if hard-working British subjects didn't come here to seek a better life, 300 years ago.

The problems are the result of profiteering Big Business run amok for a decade.

However, there is very little "Big Business" running amok here in Boise, and so there is no rampant immigration problem to deal with. The non-English speaking peoples I've encountered here in Boise are Eastern Europeans (Serbian) white people.

If you do decide to move to Boise, kindly leave your prejudices in California.

[boi2socal]

Thank you for that post! Sure illegal immigrants commit crimes...but so do white people that have lived here, been spoiled and chosen to be violent, fraudulent, perverse or whatever!

[stingraynm]

Originally Posted by boi2socal

Thank you for that post! Sure illegal immigrants commit crimes...but so do white people that have lived here, been spoiled and chosen to be violent, fraudulent, perverse or whatever!

Very true. I think this poster was mostly just worried about his particular job market, and as all Boiseans know, that market has a lot more than illegals to contend with.

And the points about Big Biz are true, too. If illegals were really that much of a problem, then out-sourcing would be a problem, too, but despite the devastating effect that has had on the middle class employment economy, I don't hear anyone saying anything.

Being in NM really openned my eyes to a lot of unnecessary barriers that are put in place simply to keep people from going through a proper application process prior to entering the country. A lot of us - and our tax money - would be better served if people had to join the same system as us instead of living unaccountably on the fringes. If it was easier to gain citizenship, we'd even be able to better punish those who come in and take from the system without giving back, so even the people who are currently adamantly against immigrants would be better served. Lastly, immigrants would get better pay, living, and even be able to INSURE THEIR CARS (I pay twice what I did in ID, 'cause NM has such a high population of uninsured drivers), and the pay scale for the rest of us wouldn't suffer. Everybody wins! But there's no money to be made and workers to be oppressed in sensible policy.