The Biden administration warned Republican Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds on Friday that legal action will be taken if it enforces a new law that allows authorities to arrest migrants who were previously denied entry or deported from the US — as she and the state attorney general vow they “will not back down.”
In a letter to the Hawkeye State governor, a Justice Department official called the measure unconstitutional and gave the state a May 7 deadline to suspend enforcement of Senate File 2340, which Reynolds signed into law earlier this month.
“SF 2340 is preempted by federal law and violates the United States Constitution,” Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian Boynton wrote, according to the Des Moines Register.
The DOJ official argued that the law “effectively creates a separate state immigration scheme,” which “intrudes into a field that is occupied by the federal government and is preempted.”
Boynton further claimed the law violates the Immigration and Nationality Act and conflicts “with various provisions of federal law permitting noncitizens to seek protection from removal to avoid persecution or torture.”
Iowa’s new law, which goes into effect on July 1, makes it an aggravated misdemeanor offense — punishable by up to two years in prison — for migrants to be in the Hawkeye State if they have outstanding deportation orders, were previously deported or were at one point barred from entering the US.
The law elevates the crime to a felony offense if the person’s previous removal orders were related to misdemeanor convictions for drug crimes, crimes against people or any type of felony conviction. --->READ MORE HERE
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| Photo by Robin Opsahl/Iowa Capital Dispatch |
The U.S. Department of Justice intends to file a lawsuit against an Iowa law making illegal immigration a state crime if the law remains in effect, a top official wrote in a letter to Gov. Kim Reynolds and state Attorney General Brenna Bird.
First reported by the Des Moines Register, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian Boynton said in a letter to the Republican state officials that the federal department “intends to bring a lawsuit to enforce the supremacy of federal law” and enjoin Senate File 2340, blocking it from being enforced.
The Iowa law, signed by Reynolds in April, allows state law enforcement officers to charge people with an aggravated misdemeanor if they have been deported, denied admission or removed from the U.S., or if they have an order to leave the country. People with a criminal history can be charged with higher penalties for being in the country unlawfully under the new measure.
Additionally, state courts are able to order the deportation of people charged, with state agencies and law enforcement having the ability to transport migrants to U.S. ports of entry to ensure they leave the country. People who do not leave as ordered can be charged with a felony for failure to comply.
The law is set to go into effect July 1. However, the federal justice department plans to stop the law from being enforced before that date. In the letter, Boynton gave Reynolds and Bird a deadline of Tuesday to suspend enforcement of the law or the Department of Justice will take action.
“If you have not confirmed by May 7, 2024, that Iowa will forbear such enforcement, the United States intends to pursue all appropriate legal remedies to ensure that Iowa does not interfere with the functions of the federal government,” the letter states. --->READ MORE HERE
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