By
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has signed a law that would allow local law enforcement officials to arrest some undocumented immigrants and state courts to order their deportation, making Iowa the second state to recently challenge the federal government’s authority on immigration policies.
The legislation, Senate File 2340, criminalizes being in Iowa if a person has been previously deported or denied entry into the country. The law goes into effect in July.
In a statement Wednesday, Reynolds criticized President Joe Biden’s immigration policies and said the bill “gives Iowa law enforcement the power to do what he is unwilling to do: enforce immigration laws already on the books.”
Iowa now joins Texas in granting state officials the power to enforce their own rules on immigration, a move that civil rights groups say is unconstitutional; the American Civil Liberties Union said Wednesday that Iowa’s law “facilitates racial profiling and stereotyping.” In March, a federal appellate court blocked Texas’ law from being enforced as the legal battle over it plays out.
Both state laws mirror a similar failed attempt by Arizona to defy federal immigration powers 14 years ago.
Like many other Republican governors, Reynolds has been a fierce critic of Biden’s immigration policies. She has deployed the Iowa National Guard to support Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s anti-immigrant crackdown and made several trips to the U.S.-Mexico border in recent years.
But the new law targets people in Reynolds’ own state. According to the American Immigration Council, just 5.3% of Iowa residents are foreign-born — with undocumented immigrants accounting for a whopping 1.1% of the state’s population. What’s more, Des Moines is more than 1,100 miles from, say, Eagle Pass, Texas, a border town that is central to the political standoff between Abbott and Biden.