Des Moines, Iowa.- This Monday, a federal judge temporarily blocked Iowa from applying a new law, known as Senate File 2340, which makes it a state crime to enter Iowa for a person who has been deported or who has been denied entry into the United States. Joined. The ruling comes amid a national campaign by state House conservatives to assert their authority over illegal immigration, which has long been the purview of the federal government.
“Politically, the new legislation may be defensible,” wrote Justice Stephen Locher. “As a matter of constitutional law, it is not.”
Iowa is one of a handful of Republican-led states to have enacted a form of state-level immigration enforcement this year, angering Biden administration officials who have called the laws unconstitutional overreach. Iowa authorities promised to appeal the judge’s order granting the precautionary measure.
“I am disappointed by today’s court decision, which prevents Iowa from stopping illegal reentry and maintaining the safety of our communities,” the state’s attorney general, Republican Brenna Bird, said in a statement. “As Biden refuses to secure our borders, he has left states no choice but to do the job for him.”
Immigration has become one of the major issues of this year’s presidential campaign, and federal authorities have seen an increase in the number of immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Many states with Republican governors, including Iowa, have also sent National Guard troops to Texas to assist with border security.
“Clearly, the Biden administration is not doing its job and enforcing federal immigration laws by allowing millions of people to enter and re-enter without any consequence or delay,” said Gov. Kim Reynolds of Iowa, a Republican, in a announced on Monday. “I signed this bill to protect Iowans and our communities from the results of this border crisis: increased crime, overdose deaths and human trafficking.”
After Ms. Reynolds, a Republican, signed the law, the Justice Department sued and asked a federal judge to intervene before the measure took effect on July 1.
“Iowa cannot ignore the US Constitution and Supreme Court precedents,” Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division, said in a statement when the lawsuit was filed. “We have brought this action to ensure that Iowa adheres to the framework adopted by Congress and the Constitution for the regulation of immigration.”
Judge Locher, of the US District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, said he believed that those challenging the law are likely to prevail in a trial on the merits, and listed specific concerns with the way lawmakers in Iowa provides labor law.
“The fact that Senate File 2340 forces Iowa state court judges to issue orders compelling noncitizens to return to the foreign nation from which they came further aggravates the conflict,” Judge Locher wrote , who was appointed by President Biden. “Congress has established an intricate and specialized system, with multiple layers of review by trained immigration officials and judges, to determine when someone can be removed from this country and where they should go.”
Efforts by conservative states to play a role in immigration enforcement and resistance to those efforts by the Biden administration have highlighted the ongoing tension in the balance of power between the federal government and state governments. . The legality of state immigration laws could be decided in the United States Supreme Court.
Federal judges this year have temporarily blocked enforcement of a Texas law that allowed police officers to detain and remove immigrants, and a portion of a Florida law that made it a crime to transport anyone into the state who lacked legal status. legal immigrant status. The Justice Department has also sued a law passed in Oklahoma that makes it a state crime for the presence in Oklahoma of an alien who has not lawfully entered the United States.
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