Michael Angiletta

Idaho. A redoubt of sanity in an insane world.

[Michael Angiletta @MichaelAngil]

Conservatives are very good at reacting to the latest horrific headline. We are much worse at building the research, tools, legislation and sustained local pressure needed to change what happens next.

That is why we built this map. Find your city or county. Check the record. Help us go on offense.

https://t.co/XefbCkkvOH

[Secure Idaho @secureIDelect]

DHS says the man charged in the Star kidnapping case illegally re-entered the United States. ICE has lodged a detainer.

This is not an isolated enforcement problem and outrage after the latest arrest isn't a strategy.

Where does your city or county stand on immigration enforcement? 🧵

[Michael Angiletta @MichaelAngil]

Heaven forbid ICE go after the EMPLOYERS of illegal labor. With Republicans like these...

[Steve Cortes @SteveCortes]

Nikki Haley says deportations clearly went too far because big business is upset:

“Everyone saw that ICE overreached and what happened was it was too much. It wasn’t just going after criminals… all of sudden it was going into companies and they thought the overreach was there.”

[Michael Angiletta @MichaelAngil]

@Brian_Peotter Misleading. You should at least make the date range prominent. A lot has changed in the last 6 years.

[Michael Angiletta @MichaelAngil]

The arrogance we've seen lately from the illegal labor lobby is something to behold.

We see this same attitude from Big Ag and the cheap-labor construction lobby right here in Idaho.

Some of these folks seem to forget that legislators are supposed to represent the PEOPLE, not the industries with the biggest lobbying budgets.

Pride cometh before the fall.

[CSPAN @cspan]

South Texas Builders Association Vice Chair Benny Melendez to White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller: "If you want to continue harassing our communities...These same communities you're now harassing will make sure you lose the White House."

[Michael Angiletta @MichaelAngil]

ICE just arrested an alleged MS-13 member in Victor.

A Victor councilmember is floating sanctuary city status.

And now Teton County probation wants to restrict ICE cooperation?

What's going on in Teton @MarkHarrisIdaho?

Email the Teton commissioners here: [email protected]

[Secure Idaho @secureIDelect]

Teton County considers NEW RESTRICTIONS on cooperation with ICE. And the timing is notable.

ICE just arrested an alleged MS-13 member in Victor. Meanwhile, a Victor councilmember has openly questioned why the city shouldn't become a sanctuary city.

Now Teton County's probation department is proposing limits on ICE detainers and sharing non-public information with federal agents.

Commissioners have postponed a vote to hear more public comment. Teton residents still have an opportunity to weigh in.

Teton County records: https://t.co/fblYEtGi53

[Michael Angiletta @MichaelAngil]

@robathon16 @randy_westlund @redmanforidaho That's a great question to ask Sheriff Norris. There is precedent. Owyhee county sheriff does the Task Force Model in addition to the Warrant Service Officer program.

https://t.co/4Xp7fKNUfj

[Michael Angiletta @MichaelAngil]

Post Falls was the first city in Idaho to join 287(g), and police have already reported 18 immigration arrests.
The Mayor wants to tackle E-Verify next.

With Rep. @redmanforidaho bringing E-Verify legislation back to Boise in January, this is shaping up to be an interesting legislative session.

Which Idaho city will be next to follow Post Falls' lead?

[Mayor Randy Westlund @randy_westlund]

Post Falls is fighting for American workers. We were the first city in Idaho to arrest illegals under 287(g). Word is, illegals won't show up to job sites in Post Falls anymore. That's a real win for American wages. Next is e-verify.

Every other city should follow suit.

[Michael Angiletta @MichaelAngil]

@realJeremyCarl You have to imagine someone is having a laugh at the poor rubes who can't do anything about this.

[Michael Angiletta @MichaelAngil]

@baseballcrank https://t.co/9dVHZ85u8j

[Michael Angiletta @MichaelAngil]

@IdahoTribune Forget California! Let's talk Congo.

[Michael Angiletta @MichaelAngil]

@el_enchandler yup

[Michael Angiletta @MichaelAngil]

How much longer will Boise and Washington treat expanding the labor supply as the answer to every employer complaint? And why is E-Verify still such a battle in "red" Idaho?

[zerohedge @zerohedge]

Foreign-born workers soar by 809K in October, the biggest monthly increase since Jan 2025
Native-born workers dropped by 64K

[Michael Angiletta @MichaelAngil]

Better late than never. @StephenM , we need your help on 287(g) and E-Verify out here in Idaho!

[Michael Angiletta @MichaelAngil]

@el_enchandler 🎯

[Michael Angiletta @MichaelAngil]

Here's a radical thought for Simpson, Crapo, and the rest of the political class:

Idaho is a home for its people, not merely a labor market for its employers.

The purpose of a country is not to maximize GDP or guarantee every industry an endless supply of workers at the price it prefers.

[Secure Idaho @secureIDelect]

IDAHO'S SIMPSON BACKS BILL WITH AMNESTY PATHWAY AND EMPLOYER SAFE HARBOR

As Big Business pushes Congress for a lame-duck immigration deal, H.R. 9535 deserves a closer look.

@CongMikeSimpson is an original cosponsor. Idaho's dairy lobby says it's working with @MikeCrapo on a Senate version.

The bill would:

❌ Let qualifying illegal agricultural workers obtain H-2A status without leaving the U.S.
❌ Waive immigration violations.
❌ Protect employers from liabilities tied to their past employment of those workers.

This isn't just about expanding guest worker visas. It's also about legalizing existing illegal workers and shielding employers from consequences of previous illegal hiring.

Read H.R. 9535 for yourself: https://t.co/fPhLblJs9N

[Michael Angiletta @MichaelAngil]

@Android_G17 🎯

[Michael Angiletta @MichaelAngil]

Devon is describing a problem that should sound awfully familiar to anyone watching Idaho politics.

Republicans campaign on America First. Then Big Ag shows up in Boise explaining why it needs an endless supply of cheap foreign labor.

The dairy lobby spent heavily fighting E-Verify. The House passed E-Verify. The Senate wouldn't even give it a hearing. Meanwhile, Senate leadership proudly advertises the dairy PAC's endorsement.

The interests of employers and the interests of a nation are not always the same thing. At some point, Republican politicians need to decide which comes first.

So, @kelly_a_anthon, will the Idaho Senate fiddle while Rome burns? Or will E-Verify finally get a hearing in 2027?

@redmanforidaho @DaleHawkinsID @brian_lenney

[Devon Eriksen @Devon_Eriksen_]

I'm a storyteller.

I will tell you a story.

Not a thinly veiled allegory or analogy. Not a fable. Not a parody or a satire, or some smug little parable featuring characters "Ronald Grump" and "Alan Tusk".

No, this is a true story, and it means what it means, with no hidden symbolism whatsoever. It contains only facts, and general principles to derive from them.

It is a story about Rome.

We all know what Rome was. It was a republic, then an Empire, then nothing.

But every time we ask why, historians wish to tell us it is complicated, and that we desperately need historians, such as themselves, to sort it all out.

The decline and fall of the Roman Empire was not complicated.

The decline and fall of the Roman Empire can be explained in two words.

Cheap labor.

The Romans, as you know, had two classes, the patricians and the plebeians.

The patricians ruled Rome. But the plebeians were Rome. And the patricians forgot this.

Around this point in the story, you may be thinking you understand me already. You may think you have anticipated where I am going with this. You may think that this is going to be some general polemic about the importance of remembering the little people.

It is not. I have a very specific meaning, and I always choose my words very, very carefully.

Two words.

Cheap. Labor.

The Romans patricians, like the old and the rich of any society, owned land, and sold goods. To do this, they bought labor.

The Roman plebeians, most especially the young, sold labor. So that they could buy goods and land.

So, it should go without saying, but often doesn't, that it was in the interest of plebeians that goods and land be cheap, and labor be expensive, and in the interest of patricians that land and goods should be expensive, and labor should be cheap.

Now, markets have natural cycles. The price of every thing fluctuates up and down, looking for an equilibrium which is only ever temporary.

Sometimes goods and land are cheap, and labor is expensive. Then the plebeians become fat and prosperous, and they marry pretty girls and have lots of healthy children.

Sometimes goods and land are expensive, and labor is cheap, and patricians amass vast fortunes and build fine estates and eat honeyed dormice.

To every thing, there is a season.

But the patricians controlled Rome. Not fully or directly, not in theory, but they had money. And money buys power. Just as power buys money.

And the temptation, in the long run, became irresistible. To buy political power, and put the finger of that political power on the scales of the market.

To make sure the cheap labor stays cheap forever.

In Rome, cheap labor meant slaves. Elsewhere, it has meant other things.

In Rome, slaves kept labor cheap not only because slaves don't get paid, and can't quit, but also because every plebeian who sells labor must compete with the slave on price.

Little by little, this took away from the plebeians, not only because real wages were depressed, but more importantly because there were no seasons of labor scarcity. No cycles in the market where wages went high.

No fat seasons for the plebes, just an ever-increasing drought.

And, while the patricians controlled Rome, the plebeians were Rome. It was their blood, shed in the legions, that conquered the world. Their sweat that built the shining city of seven hills.

And their patriotism that defined what Rome was.

The patricians ruled Rome. But the plebeians were Rome, and when they ceased to bear allegiance to Rome, Rome ceased to exist, because the only thing that Rome ever was, the only thing that any city or nation ever is, is its people.

A man who has no work, a man who must compete with slaves, a man who is beaten down to want the hungriest beggar will take, is a man who cannot have a home and a family.

Not only because he cannot afford such things. But because no woman will have him. No woman will bear his children.

The ultimate expression, after all, of female lust and admiration, is "I want to have his babies".

Fewer people seem to realize that the reverse is true.

I was told once, by a man who should have known better, that Rome fell because the Romans forgot what it meant to be Roman.

Nonsense.

Rome fell because Romans knew exactly what it meant to be Roman. Which meant they knew that to be Roman meant to be replaced by slaves.

The patricians bore no allegiance to Rome, because it was cheaper to replace the Roman workers with slaves, and the Roman legions with mercenaries.

The plebeians bore no allegiance to Rome, because Rome bore no allegiance to them.

And so Rome simply ceased to be.

The outward forms hung around awhile, until the mercenaries, bearing no true allegiance to Rome, realized they didn't have to wait to be paid. They could just... take.

The patricians destroyed Rome because they thought like politicians instead of kings.

A politician buys a crown by offering the most to those whose support is most in doubt.

A king knows that crowns and thrones are only symbols, and power comes from armies of loyal men, whose loyalty must be bought with loyalty in turn. Not table scraps.

The Roman plebeians didn't want, and couldn't survive on, free bread and circuses. They needed work and land and incomes to have families and happy lives.

But no Caesar emerged in time.

Tick tock, Mr. Vance.

Tick tock.

[Michael Angiletta @MichaelAngil]

@SpoonForIdaho 🎯

[Michael Angiletta @MichaelAngil]

@HeatherScottID So long as the ID Dairy PAC runs the table in the Senate, nothing will change.

[Michael Angiletta @MichaelAngil]

A tale of two Idaho cities.

Post Falls or Victor.

Which way, Idaho?

[Mayor Randy Westlund @randy_westlund]

Hey, Victor: be like Post Falls!

[Michael Angiletta @MichaelAngil]

@cynical_subvet Victor is near a ski resort, so...

[Michael Angiletta @MichaelAngil]

“What is it about being a sanctuary city that's so harmful?”

That's what a Victor, Idaho, city councilwoman asked while looking to withhold $125,000 in funding for the county's 911 dispatch system over the sheriff's cooperation with ICE.

Imagine using emergency services funding as leverage to discourage federal immigration enforcement. What's going on in Victor?

[Secure Idaho @secureIDelect]

IS VICTOR USING 911 FUNDING AS LEVERAGE AGAINST ICE?

Victor, Idaho, has $125,000 in public safety funding under discussion. But at an October 28 meeting, Councilwoman Amy Ross called for "zero communication or assistance with ICE" from the Teton County Sheriff's Office.

She also asked: "What is it about being a sanctuary city that's so harmful?"

There's a problem with that idea. Idaho Code § 19-6102 prohibits local government policies that discourage immigration enforcement or cooperation with federal immigration officers.

No funding decision has been made, but the question deserves an answer:

Is Victor considering conditioning its 911 dispatch contribution on the sheriff's cooperation with ICE?

[Michael Angiletta @MichaelAngil]

Got him.