(The Center Square) – Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird said she is ready to defend lawsuits challenging Iowa’s new illegal immigration law.
The U.S. Department of Justice filed suit against the state on Thursday over Senate File 2340, which makes illegal immigration a state crime.
“Iowa cannot disregard the U.S. Constitution and settled Supreme Court precedent,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of DOJ’s Civil Division. “We have brought this action to ensure that Iowa adheres to the framework adopted by Congress and the Constitution for regulation of immigration.”
Also on Thursday, the American Immigration Council, the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, and the national ACLU on behalf of the Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa. The plaintiffs said the bill will separate families and increase racial profiling.
“This ugly law is deeply harmful to Iowa families and communities. Iowa lawmakers knowingly targeted people who are protected by federal immigration laws and who are legally allowed to be here, like people granted asylum, or special visas given to survivors of domestic violence or other crimes,” said Rita Bettis Austen; legal director for the ACLU of Iowa. “And there are lots of good reasons — related to foreign relations, national security, humanitarian interests, and our constitutional system — why the federal government enforces our immigration law, instead of all 50 states going out and doing their own thing to enforce their own separate immigration schemes. It’s hard to overstate how awful and bizarre this law is.”
The bill makes illegal immigration an aggravated misdemeanor under two circumstances: If the person has been denied admission to or has been excluded, deported, or removed from the United States or if the person was previously deported and if the person left the U.S. while under a deportation or removal order and returned.
The charges are increased to a Class D felony if a person was removed after a misdemeanor conviction involving drugs or crimes against a person or if the person was subject to alien terrorist removal procedures. A Class C felony would apply if the person were removed after a felony conviction. The bill would allow judges to issue an order that removes a person convicted from the U.S.
Bird and Gov. Kim Reynolds said Iowa lawmakers passed SF 2340 because the Biden administration is failing to secure the border.
“Iowa’s law is not unique; it simply enforces immigration laws while Biden refuses to,’ Bird said. “Iowa stands ready to defend our immigration law that keeps Iowa communities safe.”
One Iowa police chief said state law enforcement officials are not prepared to handle immigration laws.
“This law undermines local law enforcement’s ability to work with their communities and will actually diminish public safety, not improve it,” said Marshalltown Police Chief Michael Tupper. in the ACLU news release. “It will create fear in our community that will make people reluctant to talk to police and to report crimes. The law provides for no additional funding to local and state governments who are now directed by the state law to arrest, prosecute, deport, or incarcerate people.”
The plaintiffs are asking the court to declare the law unconstitutional and prevent the state from enforcing it.
A similar law passed in Texas is facing a federal court challenge. Oklahoma lawmakers passed a law creating the crime of “impermissible occupation” that is similar to the Texas and Iowa laws.
