Idaho governor sending state troopers to Texas border is just political theater | Opinion

Idaho Gov. Brad Little on Friday announced plans to send Idaho State Police troopers to the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas to “secure our nation’s border.”

At best, it’s nothing more than political theater that wastes Idaho taxpayer dollars.

At worst, it throws gasoline on a smoldering fire.

Idaho joins 24 other states in “standing with Texas” in its fight against the federal government over the use of razor wire at the border.

It comes at a time when the state of Texas is suing the federal government in an effort to continue its practice of putting up razor wire along the U.S.-Mexico border as a deterrent to illegal crossings.

Federal Border Patrol agents have been removing the wire not only to prevent serious injuries and death, but in order to do their jobs of apprehending migrants crossing the border illegally.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Border Patrol agents can continue to remove razor wire while the Texas lawsuit goes through the courts.

So Texas continues to put up razor wire while Border Patrol agents take it down, setting up what has been called, in true, ridiculous Texas fashion, “a showdown” over the authority of the federal government.

It’s a touchy situation with dangerous rhetoric.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem used incendiary language by urging Texas to “stand their ground” against the federal government.

Little even declared January the “Idaho Stands With Texas in Securing the Nation’s Border Month.” Just rolls off the tongue.

If it weren’t such an incendiary situation, this can be seen as nothing more than political theater.

Let’s put aside for the moment that this is a waste of Idaho taxpayer dollars. As we have argued before, Idaho has more problems that need to be dealt with that our tax dollars should be applied to.

The rallying cry — “But the fentanyl!” — is easily debunked. As has been reported many times before, the vast majority of fentanyl is coming across the border through legal checkpoints.

In 2021, U.S. citizens made up 86.3% of convicted fentanyl drug traffickers — 10 times greater than convictions of undocumented immigrants for the same offense, according to a study by the libertarian think tank Cato Institute, based on data from the U.S. Sentencing Commission.

That study found that just 0.02% of the people arrested by Border Patrol for crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally possessed any fentanyl whatsoever.

According to Cato, 90% of fentanyl seizures occur at legal crossing points or interior vehicle checkpoints, not on illegal migration routes.

We’d much rather see Little spend Idaho taxpayer dollars on prevention and treatment of substance addiction than trying to put his finger in the dike holding back the influx of drugs into this country.

As long as there is demand from American consumers, drugs will find their way here.

At the same time Republican governors are lining up to “stand with Texas,” it was revealed that former President Donald Trump has been putting pressure on Republican U.S. senators to quash any deal on the border so that President Joe Biden doesn’t get any credit or legislative victory.

Trump wants — and Republicans are agreeing — to prolong the so-called “invasion” in order to score political points, try to make it look as if illegal crossings didn’t exist before Biden took office, make the president look bad for the upcoming election and then take credit for “solving” the problem if he’s reelected.

Some migrants have already died trying to cross the border. How many more will die in the coming months if a deal is delayed?

Remember, this is a fight over whether to put up razor wire along the border so that anyone attempting to cross will get cut up in their efforts.

Perhaps Republicans’ tactics of putting up razor wire and busing undocumented immigrants to Democratic-controlled cities was meant as a strategy to get Biden to the table to come up with solutions. They even used funding to defend Ukraine to twist Biden’s arm on the border. If so, it apparently worked.

If there’s a solution on the table, get to work on it.

Sending Idaho State Police troopers to the border for a photo op is not a solution.

Statesman editorials are the unsigned opinion of the Idaho Statesman’s editorial board. Board members are opinion editor Scott McIntosh, opinion writer Bryan Clark, editor Chadd Cripe, newsroom editors Dana Oland and Jim Keyser and community members Mary Rohlfing and Patricia Nilsson.