DesMoines, Iowa – A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked an Iowa law that would have done just that allowed law enforcement in the state to file criminal charges against people with outstanding deportation orders or who have previously been denied entry into the US
U.S. District Court Judge Stephen Locher issued a preliminary injunction, saying the U.S. Justice Department and civil rights groups that filed suit against the state are likely to succeed in their argument that federal immigration law would override the law passed this spring approved by Iowa lawmakers. He stopped enforcing the law “pending further proceedings.”
“Politically, the new legislation could be defensible,” Locher wrote in his decision. “As a constitutional right, that is not the case.”
The Iowa law, which would take effect July 1, would allow law enforcement agencies to bring charges against people who still have deportation orders or who have previously been removed from the U.S. or denied entry into the U.S. Once in custody, migrants can agree to a judge's ruling. to leave the U.S. or face prosecution, which could include a prison sentence before deportation.
At the time the law is passed, Iowa's Republican majority has a Republican majority in the House Governor Kim Reynolds said they took this action because Democratic President Biden's administration was ineffective in controlling immigration along the country's southern border.
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In arguments before Locher last week, the state said the Iowa law would only allow state law enforcement agencies and courts to apply federal laws, not create new laws. Federal authorities determine who violates U.S. immigration law, Iowa Deputy Attorney General Patrick Valencia had argued, but once that was determined, the person also violated state law.
“We have a law that adopts the federal standard,” Valencia said.
However, the federal government and civil rights groups said the Iowa law violated the federal government's sole authority over immigration matters and would cause a host of problems and confusion.
Christopher Eiswerth, a DOJ attorney, and Emma Winger, representative of the American Immigration Council, said Iowa's new law made no exception for people who had once been deported but were now in the country legally, including those seeking asylum.
The law is similar but less comprehensive than a Texas law that was in effect for only a confusing few hours in March before being suspended by a three-judge panel of a federal appeals court.
The Justice Department also said it will try to block a similar law in Oklahoma.
Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird said in a statement that she would appeal the judge's decision.
“I am disappointed with today's court decision that prevents Iowa from stopping illegal reentry and keeping our communities safe,” Bird said. “Since Biden refuses to secure our borders, he has left states with no choice but to do the job for him.”
Reynolds issued a statement in which he also expressed frustration with the judge's ruling and criticized Biden.
“I signed this bill to protect Iowans and our communities from the consequences of this border crisis: rising crime, overdose deaths and human trafficking,” Reynolds said.
Rita Bettis Austen, legal director of the ACLU of Iowa, one of the organizations that filed the lawsuit, praised the judge's decision and said the law placed a federal onus on local law enforcement agencies that were unwilling to take on this role to take.
Bettis Austen called the law “one of the worst anti-immigrant legislation in Iowa history,” adding that it “exposed even legal immigrants, and even children, to serious harms: arrest, detention, deportation, family separation, and incarceration by the state.'
