E-Verify requirements in Idaho: no state mandate, a 2009 executive order, and the 2026 bills that failed

As of October 2026, Idaho has no state law requiring any private employer to use E-Verify. It is one of the states that most summaries get wrong in the other direction: many E-Verify trackers list Idaho as a mandate state because of a 2009 executive order, but that order never names E-Verify, was written around federal stimulus money, and is subject to an Idaho statute that makes executive orders lapse after four years unless renewed. The 2026 Legislature came close to writing an actual E-Verify law and did not finish the job.

For a recruiter or HR team hiring in Idaho, the practical answer is short: complete Form I-9 correctly for every hire, use E-Verify only if you choose to or if a federal contract requires it, and read the specific terms of any state or local contract you sign. The rest of this page explains why, and what to watch for in the next session.

Who is covered in Idaho, at a glance

What Executive Order 2009-10 actually says

Governor C.L. "Butch" Otter signed Executive Order 2009-10 on May 29, 2009, repealing and replacing an earlier order, 2006-40. Its recitals tie it directly to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act signed that February. The parts that matter to employers are these:

• State hiring: the Division of Human Resources was told to "continue to develop and implement procedures" to make sure new employees of state agencies are eligible to work. The order does not say those procedures must be E-Verify.
• State contracts: contracts, requests for proposals, bids and information requests for state projects or services "that involve state or federal stimulus funds" had to include notice that contractors and subcontractors declare they have substantiated that their workers on those projects can legally work in the United States.
• Penalties: the Department of Administration was to develop contract penalties for an employer that knowingly and willfully fails to confirm eligibility or knowingly employs someone who cannot legally work. The order lists immediate contract cancellation, reversion of unspent public funds, and monetary penalties as options.
• Scope: "agency" excludes the department of education and the legislative and judicial branches.

A contractor can satisfy "substantiated that all employees can legally work" in more than one way, and a properly completed Form I-9 is the federal baseline for exactly that. Reading the order as an E-Verify mandate adds a word it does not contain.

The four-year expiration rule

Idaho Code 67-802 says an executive order must state a date when it stops being effective, within four calendar years, and that an order without one "shall cease to be effective four (4) calendar years from the issuance thereof, unless renewed by subsequent executive order." Executive Order 2009-10 contains no expiration date. Unless a later order renewed it, it lapsed in 2013. We looked for a renewal and did not find one, but we cannot rule one out; if your contract cites the order, ask the contracting agency what it is relying on today.

The 2026 session: two bills that did not become law

Senate Bill 1247, the proposed Idaho E-Verify Act

As introduced by the Senate State Affairs Committee, S1247 would have added a new chapter to Title 44 of the Idaho Code requiring "covered employers" to use E-Verify. Covered employers were defined as every public agency, plus employers with more than 150 employees (during more than 26 consecutive weeks in the prior 24 months) that were party to certain public contracts, including contracts with a state agency worth $100,000 or more and paid in whole or part with public funds. It would not have reached ordinary private employers.

The Senate passed it 27-7-1 on February 19, 2026. In the House, an amendment replaced the bill's contents with an unrelated proposal requiring local law enforcement to enter 287(g) agreements, and the House passed that version 37-29-4 on April 2. The Senate did not concur in the House amendments, and the bill was filed in the office of the Secretary of the Senate. No E-Verify law resulted.

House Bill 700

H700, titled by the Legislature as establishing provisions prohibiting the unlawful employment of unauthorized aliens, passed the House 36-33-1, was referred to the Senate State Affairs Committee, and went no further.

Both House votes were close, and either proposal could be refiled in a later session. If you recruit for Idaho public agencies or large public contractors, the 150-employee and $100,000 lines in S1247 are a reasonable preview of where a future requirement might land, but they are not law today.

What Idaho employers do owe

1. Form I-9 for every hire. This is federal law and applies regardless of state. Section 1 by the employee's first day of work for pay, Section 2 within three business days. See I-9 timing in hiring.
2. E-Verify where a federal contract requires it. A federal contract or subcontract containing FAR 52.222-54 requires E-Verify under federal law, whatever Idaho does.
3. Whatever your state or local contract says. A contracting agency can write its own verification terms into a contract even without a statute. Read the immigration or employment-eligibility clause before you sign, and keep whatever declaration it asks for.
4. Consistency if you enroll voluntarily. E-Verify's own rules require an enrolled hiring site to verify every new hire there, after the I-9 is complete, and never as a pre-offer screen. The steps are in E-Verify enrollment steps.

Staffing agencies and multi-state employers

State E-Verify statutes generally follow where the employee works. An agency headquartered in Idaho that places a worker in Utah may be covered by Utah's private-employer law once it has 150 or more employees; see E-Verify requirements in Utah. The reverse is also true: an agency based in a mandate state that places workers in Idaho does not pick up an Idaho E-Verify duty for those workers, although its own company-wide enrollment may already cover the Idaho hiring site.

If the agency is enrolled for some hiring sites and not others, decide deliberately which sites Idaho placements are hired through. Once a site is enrolled, every new hire at that site gets a case, and a client cannot ask the agency to skip one. E-Verify for staffing agencies covers who creates the case between agency and client.

A worked example: a Boise employer with a state contract

This is an invented example, not a real company. A Boise IT services firm with 80 employees wins a $250,000 contract with an Idaho state agency in 2026.

• State statute: none applies. Even S1247 as introduced would not have reached this firm, because it has fewer than 150 employees.
• Contract terms: the firm reads the agency's contract and finds a clause asking it to certify that it does not knowingly employ unauthorized workers. It signs, keeps the certification with the contract file, and keeps its I-9s current.
• Federal work: the firm also subcontracts on a federal agency project whose prime contract includes FAR 52.222-54. That flowdown, not Idaho law, is what requires it to enroll in E-Verify, within the clause's deadlines.

The lesson: in Idaho, E-Verify obligations arrive through contracts, almost always federal ones, rather than through state law.

An Idaho checklist

• Complete Form I-9 for every hire on time; this is the obligation that applies to everyone.
• Check each federal contract and subcontract for FAR 52.222-54.
• Read the eligibility clause in any state or local contract and keep the signed declaration.
• If you enroll in E-Verify voluntarily, apply it to every new hire at the enrolled site.
• For placements outside Idaho, apply the law of the state where the work is done; see E-Verify requirements by state.
• Recheck after the 2027 session; a public-sector E-Verify bill passed the Idaho Senate in 2026 and a version could return.