BOISE, Idaho — In the wake of recent ICE arrests, I sat down with Bart Davis, who is serving his second term as U.S. Attorney for the District of Idaho, to get his take on current policies and what his office can and cannot do regarding immigration enforcement.
“It appears to me, and I hope that people will begin to understand that ICE has a very difficult job to do,” said Davis.
U.S. Attorney Bart Davis has spent many years as a public servant and knows the immigration challenges facing Idaho.
Davis says his office has direct responsibilities when it comes to immigration enforcement.
“Our focus is on immigration crimes, including illegally re-entering the United States. We did that before, we do that now," explained Davis. "Possession or use of fraudulent immigration documents— again, our office has a role there. Alien smuggling, attempting to obtain immigration benefits by fraud, those are the types of things that a U.S. Attorney's Office is involved in.”
Senior Reporter Don Nelson posed this question: “In your view, from your office, how do you determine who the bad characters are?"
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"Well, again, we take cases as they come, and so we’ll continue to look at those as those investigations proceed, we’ll look at what we’re being told, we’ll do our homework, and we’ll indict those individuals that meet the standards that we’re expected to meet,” said Davis.
Davis can only comment on current individual cases that are brought to his attention, and says even though he believes there are examples where somebody stubbed their toe, he generally has found that ICE is collectively committed to trying to find a solution that works here in Idaho.
