8-30 IAT Otter on Labor

 It is no mystery to any of us that we have a large population of laborers in Idaho who are not here legally. Obviously, they come from other places, primarily Mexico and Latin America, in an effort to lead a better life. I sat down with Gov. Otter  the other day and he offered an interesting and personal perspective on this whole issue. “The more goodies and stuff you put out there, the more people are going to want them. The illegals who do come in from wherever in the world, if they can get access to them then they do so. No more stuff you have, the more people you are going to attract. I worked in a dairy for a long time when I was a kid. I milked cows twice a day. That is not a very glamorous job so you have to have people who are willing to do that work. When I was in the farming and ranching business to the extent that I was, we had what we called the bressario program and if you needed some employees, you went and got them, you brought them in, they worked for you and when their work was done, they went home. Canada has a system like that.