Civil rights groups filed a federal lawsuit Thursday to block a recent Iowa anti-immigrant law that allows Iowa police to arrest undocumented people who have been denied entry to the United States or previously deported.
The legal complaint against SF 2340 argues that the state measure conflicts with existing federal law and “will have a number of dramatic consequences for Iowans,” the plaintiffs said in a statement.
It also argues that the law creates new crimes for anyone in Iowa, including a child, who has reentered the country after being deported, even if they are authorized to remain in the United States.
The lawsuit, filed by the American Immigration Council (AIC) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of the Iowa Migrant Justice Movement and the migrants the organization helps, asks the court to block the implementation of the measure.
The law, expected to take effect July 1, would allow the arrest of migrants who have been deported from the country or denied entry and would force that state's police to verify that foreigners are expelled again.
Kate Melloy Goettel, legal director of the AIC, warned that under SF 2340, even if a person now has legal immigration status, they could be arrested and deported if they were previously removed from the country. “It is a law that makes absolutely no sense and is clearly unconstitutional,” she stressed.
Activists called the measure one of the worst state anti-migrant laws in the country. “This ugly law is deeply harmful to families and communities,” said ACLU of Iowa Legal Director Rita Bettis Austen.
The lawyer warned that migrants who were granted asylum or special visas granted to survivors of domestic violence or other crimes could be targeted by the measure.
With the approval of state measure SF 2340, Iowa joined other Republican states such as Texas and Florida that have issued laws against undocumented migration.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, defended the law when she signed it last April and lashed out at the White House.
“Those who enter our country illegally have broken the law, but Biden refuses to deport them. “This law gives Iowa authorities the power to do what he is not willing to do: enforce the immigration laws that are already in force,” said the Republican.
Reynolds is among the governors who have backed his Texas counterpart, Republican Greg Abbott, in his challenge to the Democratic administration, and deployed soldiers from the Iowa National Guard and police from the state Department of Public Safety to the border of United States with Mexico.