Iowa passes bill to make reentry after deportation a state crime
Iowa lawmakers have one account That would make it a crime Tuesday to enter the state after being deported or denied entry into the United States. The passage puts the Midwestern state on track to join Texas in enforcing immigration outside the federal system.
The Iowa bill, which passed the same day the Supreme Court allowed Texas to enforce a new law giving police officers the power to arrest unauthorized migrants, is now on the desk of Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, who said she intended to sign it. .
“President Biden and his administration have failed to enforce our immigration laws and in doing so have jeopardized the sovereignty of our nation and the safety of its people,” Ms. Reynolds said in a statement Tuesday evening. “States have stepped in to secure the border, prevent illegal migrants from entering our country and protect our citizens.”
Iowa Democrats, who have lost power over the past decade and are heavily outnumbered in the legislature, mostly opposed the legislation but were powerless to stop it.
“This bill is a political stunt and a false promise that does not contain the necessary resources,” said Sen. Janice Weiner, an Iowa City-area Democrat, as her chamber debated the measure. “It’s a gotcha law.”
The bill would make it a crime for someone to enter Iowa if he or she had previously been deported, denied entry into the United States or left the country while facing a deportation order. In some cases, even if the person had certain prior convictions, the state crime would become a misdemeanor. Iowa police officers would not be allowed to make arrests at schools, places of worship or health care facilities under this legislation.
About 6 percent of people in Iowa were born outside the United States.
The bill’s passage showed the enduring political significance of immigration among conservatives, even in places far from the border. As federal officials struggle to manage the influx of migrants, several Republican-led states, including Iowa, have sent National Guard troops and law enforcement officers to Texas to counter Gov. Greg Abbott’s increasingly assertive approach to overseeing support the border.
Although Texas had already implemented border security measures on private property bordering Mexico, the law making it a state crime to cross the border illegally marked an escalation. The Biden administration has called the law, which was blocked by the courts until Tuesday, an unconstitutional infringement on federal authority over immigration. The courts have not yet ruled on the merits of the Texas law, and the Iowa legislation could face its own legal challenge.
While the Iowa bill is more limited, it signals a growing willingness among Republican officials to tackle immigration issues that have long been the exclusive domain of federal law enforcement. Arizona’s Republican-controlled Legislature passed a bill this year that would have authorized state police to arrest undocumented immigrants, but the governor, a Democrat, vetoed it.
Even in Iowa, where the state Capitol is about 1,100 miles from the Mexican border and 500 miles from Canada, Republicans view illegal immigration as a pressing threat to public safety.
“Every state is a border state,” Sen. Jeff Reichman, a Republican from southeastern Iowa, said this month. “Iowa is no exception.”