Illegal immigration, gun rights and more

HAYDEN — Gun rights and illegal immigration were front and center at a town hall hosted Thursday by Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris.

The event at the Hayden Lake Eagles Lodge was billed as a “Community Conversation with your Sheriff” in which Norris would discuss and get community feedback regarding a variety of topics for potential legislative priorities and including a discussion: “Is illegal immigration here?”

More than 100 people attended and, following a presentation on the sheriff’s office’s active shooter policy, Norris had attendees break up into discussion groups and complete a survey.

While survey results were being tallied, Norris spoke to the audience.

He addressed a rumor that there are white buses bringing immigrants from the southern border.

He said there are some people with temporary work visas staying in a local motel that are often bused to work by businesses in Kootenai County.

“They pick up the visa-ed immigrants, and they take them to their work location and they take them back when their shift is over,” Norris said.

Norris said he has voted against legislation that would pave a path for non-citizens to drive in the U.S.

Sheriff's deputies are reporting an increase in calls for service requiring translators for Spanish or Russian, Norris said. Deputies used to need Spanish translators once a month when making arrests, he added, and now that’s closer to once a week.

“If I had to conclude, I would say yes, we probably are being impacted by the southern border based on the totality of everything that I see,” the sheriff said.

Norris also spoke against providing lewd content to minors in libraries. During the meeting, Charity Myser handed his daughter a copy of “Deal With It” by Esther Drill.

That is illegal, Norris said, because the book contains descriptions of masturbation and can be considered lewd.

"But if it's in a public library ... it's not," he said. "I have reviewed this book and it's disgusting for it to be for children 13-19.”

Kootenai County Commissioner Bruce Mattare joined Norris to go over the survey results and for a question-and-answer session with the audience.

Mattare asked the audience what their No. 1 concern was, and in a show of hands, people said gun rights. That was over traffic, crime, social issues or illegal immigration.

“One of the things that the Idaho Sheriffs Association was behind was legislation several years back that would’ve required a supermajority for any new gun legislation or gun regulation,” Mattare said. “So these are the kinds of ways associations can help out with good legislation in the state of Idaho."

Mattare read some of the audience’s questions for Norris to answer.

“Down south, they had that three strikes rule,” Mattare said. “What was your experience with that and how did that work?”

“Crime went down significantly,” Norris said. “Generally why people commit these crimes is because they have compulsive behavior. They’re not likely going to change.”

Several questions centered on how the sheriff would respond if a federal agency were called into the sheriff's jurisdiction. Or if the federal government imposed rules like mask mandates, how would the sheriff respond.

The sheriff said he would maintain control of his jurisdiction, he would not enforce federal mask mandates and he would stand up against the federal government, especially if taking people’s weapons.

“With the support I have behind me, I can be bold,” Norris said.