Bill would punish shepherds who go on the lam

BOISE - In Idaho, Little Bo Peep better keep up with her sheep.

The livestock industry wants a new law, to charge shepherds who abandon their animals on the open range or in the lambing sheds with a misdemeanor crime.

The Senate State Affairs Committee agreed to introduce the bill Monday, to punish sheepherders who go on the lam with up to a $1,000 fine and a year in jail. Helping somebody to leave their sheep would merit the same treatment, under the bill.

Idaho's sheep industry has a long history of employing foreign workers to herd its animals, starting with Basque immigrants from Spain a century ago. Now, ranchers often rely on shepherds from Peru who live in rugged circumstances in Idaho's deserts or mountains to watch over flocks and keep them safe from predators, lightning strikes and even feral dogs.

The problem now, Idaho Wool Growers Association director Stan Boyd told the panel, is foreign workers who arrive legally on visas are often enticed to leave their jobs suddenly and without warning to ranchers for more-lucrative, less-isolated work at nurseries or in landscaping.

Though such a flight may already result in them becoming an illegal immigrant, Boyd argues Idaho should pass additional laws to further induce shepherds into sticking it out - and to keep them from fleecing ranchers.

"In the middle of the night, maybe three months later, they walk off, abandon the sheep, or if they're in the lambing sheds they abandon their duties," Boyd said, adding ranchers often spend between $2,500 to $3,000, including for airfare, for foreign workers to come to the U.S. to work on federal H-2A visas for three-year periods.

"What we'd like to do is simply put in place where it's a misdemeanor if that man jumps his contract without proper notification to the employer," Boyd added. "We're just asking folks to finish their contract. Or if they don't like it, they can always be transferred to another operation, or they can go home."

Contacted Monday, Deanne Amaden, a spokeswoman in San Francisco for the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division that helps enforce laws governing H-2A visas, wasn't immediately aware of whether agriculture operations like sheep ranches can seek to recover money from foreign workers who don't fulfill terms of their contracts.

Boyd said that's not standard practice, although some workers who are in the United States for only a short duration before deciding to go back home must pay for their return flight.

The bill is now due a full hearing, after Monday's introduction.

Even so, some members of the Senate panel voiced initial skepticism that leaving a job without proper notice should be enough to turn a person into a criminal.

"Is there another job description in Idaho where quitting your job results in a misdemeanor?" Sen. Elliot Werk, a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat from Boise.

Boyd said he wasn't aware of any.