Press Release from Idaho Attorney General, November 8, 2024
It’s been a busy week for us — obviously, there were tremendous political victories at the state and federal levels that dramatically affect the people of Idaho. But our office also delivered legal victories in federal court on two important issues regarding illegal immigration and a federal minimum wage for contractors. Both resulted from lawsuits that I led against the Biden Administration and their consistently disturbing pattern of unconstitutional overreach.
If you don’t hear about these latest victories from your local media, don’t be too surprised. The media has their own consistently disturbing pattern, and it might disrupt their ongoing narrative attacking this office.
The first victory was against the Biden Administration’s Parole-in-Place immigration scheme that granted legal status for 1.3 million illegal immigrants to remain in the United States while their cases were being resolved. Parole-in-Place was originally designed to allow an illegal immigrant to remain in the United States, specifically for “urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit” while their application is being resolved. A typical reason would be a child with a serious illness who is receiving a hard-to-find treatment. Courts have said clearly that the federal government “cannot use that power to parole aliens en masse.”
The Biden Administration countered that it had “unfettered discretion” to interpret and implement the program. Unfettered discretion is not a phrase that should ever be used with government, in any circumstance. In response, I led a lawsuit with Texas which was joined by 14 other states against this blatant overreach. On August 26, we were granted an injunction and November 7 the court issued its final opinion and judgement, halting the administration’s plan in its tracks. This is a tremendous victory for our nation, the rule of law, and for the process that millions of lawful immigrants have endured to legally reside in our nation.
The second victory this week was against the Biden Administration’s attempts to set a federal minimum wage for federal contractors. Those federal contractors represent about 20% of the entire U.S. workforce. The administration’s justification for this action was based on the same rule interpretation that forced COVID-19 vaccinations on federal workers. I filed suit in response, alongside Nebraska, Indiana, and South Carolina, arguing that only Congress has the power to set a federal minimum wage, not the Executive Branch.
Once again, the Biden Administration had overstepped their authority. The separation of powers is far less complicated than the Biden Administration would have us all believe, and a panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with us. The panel ruled the administration acted unlawfully and exceeded its statutory authority.
You would think at this point the administration would have adjusted their sails after being handed multiple defeats on this exact same principle of government overreach and the separation of powers. They are stubbornly unconstitutional. I suspect next year, with a new administration, things might be different.
No matter who occupies the Oval Office, Idaho will continue to protect the individual freedoms of our citizens and defend their sovereign voice from lawless bureaucratic activism. Idaho will continue to be a beacon and a leader for the rest of the nation, with the confidence that our principles, focus, and commitment to our people remain unchanged.
