By Matt Edwards
Drive through our country鈥檚 heartland 鈥 past golden fields, cattle-speckled hills, and humming dairies 鈥 and you鈥檒l see the soul of America at work. But look closer, and a bitter truth emerges: The hands harvesting our crops and milking our cows are too often foreign-born laborers here illegally or on a costly visa program.
In my state, the Idaho Dairymen鈥檚 Association admits a staggering 70% or more of dairy workers are using phony documents 鈥 illegal labor propping up Idaho鈥檚 top commodity and our country鈥檚 No. 3 milk-producing state.
Today, we鈥檙e fed a line that Americans have gone lazy, addicted to cubicles or city lights. Nonsense.
We鈥檙e told Americans won鈥檛 do these jobs. Really? From the 1880s through the 1940s, Americans built these very industries. So what changed? It鈥檚 not the workers. It鈥檚 the bosses who stopped believing in them.
American grit built our farms
Idaho鈥檚 dairies, ranches, and construction sites can thrive with American grit 鈥 if employers stop making excuses and start making offers.
Go back to the late 19th century, when Idaho鈥檚 Snake River Valley was raw desert. Local settlers 鈥 farmers, laborers, families 鈥 dug canals, built dams, and turned dust into fields of potatoes and alfalfa, as historian Mark Fiege shows in his 1999 book 鈥淚rrigated Eden.鈥 These weren鈥檛 hired foreigners; they were Americans, mostly Western settlers, whose sweat and cooperation built an agricultural empire through the Depression and wartime into the 1940s.
Those were hard years. Yet, these people showed up, sleeves rolled, ready to work. They weren鈥檛 too soft for the sun on their necks or the ache of a long day.
Employers abandoned American workers
Today, we鈥檙e fed a line that Americans have gone lazy, addicted to cubicles or city lights. Nonsense. Some yes, but fewer than imagined. The problem isn鈥檛 our people; it鈥檚 an industry that鈥檚 forgotten how to call them home.
Don鈥檛 tell me Americans won鈥檛 work. Plenty of us still hunger for the kind of labor that smells of earth and steel 鈥 jobs that build calluses and communities. Idaho鈥檚 fields offer purpose: the roar of a tractor, the precision of robotic milkers, the quiet triumph of a harvest under wide skies.
Vice President JD Vance nailed it when he sarcastically gave in to the notion that deporting tens of millions of illegal aliens will send us back to 1960 鈥 when homes apparently couldn鈥檛 be built without illegal labor. Absurd! The same goes for agriculture.
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Anton Skripachev via iStock/Getty Images
These aren鈥檛 dead-end gigs; they鈥檙e the backbone of our nation. But employers need to stop acting like foreign workers are the only option. If you are one of these employers who show up to the town parade waving Old Glory, singing Lee Greenwood鈥檚 鈥淕od Bless the U.S.A.鈥 鈥 if you claim to be America First 鈥 then hire Americans first. Anything less is just talk.
Illegal workers cost more
Here鈥檚 where the elites squirm. As state Rep. Stephanie Mickelsen (R-Idaho) noted during a House debate, Idaho employers often admit that foreign labor isn鈥檛 even cheaper. Visas, travel, lodging, meals, and transportation add up 鈥 often rivaling what an American might earn in salary and benefits. Yet, they claim no amount of money will lure American workers.
Have they tried? Really tried? Take those bloated costs 鈥 every dime spent on foreign logistics 鈥 and pour them into wages, health plans, or housing for locals. Build training programs to teach kids how to run today鈥檚 high-tech rigs. If tech giants can sell college grads on coding in Silicon Valley, Idaho鈥檚 dairies can sell our youth on feeding America.
It鈥檚 not rocket science. It鈥檚 will.
The same elites twist unemployment numbers to prop up their narrative. They cite low jobless rates to argue that no one鈥檚 left to hire. But the Bureau of Labor Statistics excludes a key group: able-bodied men ages 25 to 54 who鈥檝e dropped out of the workforce entirely. They鈥檙e not working, not looking, and not counted. That forgotten group alone includes an estimated seven million Americans.
Make American farming great again
Picture this: billboards across Idaho showing a young farmer steering a drone-guided planter, grinning like he owns the future. Community colleges partnering with ranchers to train veterans and high schoolers. County fairs where dairies hand out scholarships 鈥 not just milk samples. That鈥檚 not fantasy. That鈥檚 strategy. Businesses that want loyalty don鈥檛 wait for workers to show up 鈥 they go find them.
Right now, 70% of dairy workers rely on falsified papers. That鈥檚 not a workforce. It鈥檚 a failure of imagination. Legal, local labor builds trust, strengthens communities, and proves we take sovereignty seriously.
Idaho can lead the way. America鈥檚 watching.
Employers, quit hiding behind old excuses. Redirect your budgets, roll out campaigns, and watch Americans answer the call. Lawmakers, reduce or eliminate regulations that incentivize foreign labor.
Neighbors, cheer these jobs as the honorable work they are. Picture our fields alive with Americans, dairies humming with citizens who know this land as home.
That鈥檚 not just Idaho鈥檚 future, it鈥檚 America鈥檚. We鈥檝e done it before. We can do it again. All it takes is the guts to try.