DAVENPORT, Iowa (OSV News) ─ Separate lawsuits filed by the U.S. Justice Department and civil rights groups claim that the state of Iowa's new immigration law, which creates a state crime for unlawful reentry, violates federal law and the U.S. Constitution.
Both lawsuits were filed May 9, eight days after prayer rallies
and marches organized in four Iowa cities called for the law's repeal and for
human dignity. Iowa's bishops issued a statement the same day, May 1, opposing
the legislation and calling for a compassionate response to the issue of
migration.
The Justice Department's lawsuit challenges Iowa Senate File 2340 under the
U.S. Constitution's Supremacy Clause and Foreign Commerce Clause.
"The Constitution assigns the federal government to regulate
immigration and manage our international borders," the suit says.
"Pursuant to this authority, Congress has established a comprehensive
immigration framework governing the entry of noncitizens into the U.S. and the
removal of noncitizens from the country. Because SF 2340 is preempted by
federal law and violates the United States Constitution, the Justice Department
seeks a declaration that SF 2340 is invalid and an order preliminarily or
permanently enjoining the state from enforcing the law."
"Iowa cannot disregard the U.S. Constitution and settled Supreme Court
precedent," said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M.
Boynton, head of the Justice Department's Civil Division. "We have brought
this action to ensure that Iowa adheres to the framework adopted by Congress
and the Constitution for regulation of immigration."
Boynton said that the U.S. Supreme Court, in Arizona v. United States,
"confirmed that decisions relating to removal of noncitizens from the
United States touch 'on foreign relations and must be made with one voice.' SF
2340 impedes the federal government's ability to enforce entry and removal
provisions of federal law and interferes with its conduct of foreign
relations."
The lawsuit's other plaintiffs are the Department of Homeland
Security and the Department of State.
The ACLU of Iowa Foundation, American Civil Liberties Union Foundation and Iowa
Immigration Council filed a lawsuit with the U.S. District Court for the
Southern District of Iowa on behalf of the Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice,
and Iowa immigrants.
Their lawsuit states that SF 2340 "attempts to displace
federal immigration law and set up an independent state immigration
scheme." SF 2340 "purports to give Iowa state officials broad power
to arrest, detain, and deport noncitizens in Iowa who reentered the United
States after a previous removal or exclusion," it says.
"Under this novel system, the State of Iowa has created its own
immigration crime which will require state police to identify and arrest
noncitizens for alleged violations; state prosecutors to bring charges in state
courts; state judges to order deportation; and state officers to facilitate
those orders," it continues. "The federal government has no role in,
and no control over, Iowa's immigration scheme."
The civil rights groups also argue that "the law makes no exception for
people who reentered the United States with federal consent or who later gained
lawful immigration status. Nor does the law make an exception for people who
are in the process of obtaining immigration status. And the law provides no
opportunity to raise humanitarian claims for protection from removal enshrined
in federal immigration law and international conventions."
"People in these situations have explicit federal permission to remain in
the country, yet (SF) 2340 directs state officials to nevertheless force them
to leave the country or impose additional penalties of up to 10 years in
prison. The law makes no exception for people who were removed, deported,
excluded, or denied admission and returned as children, nor does it prohibit
the prosecution of children."
The lawsuit provides examples of immigrants who face the risk, unfairly, of
being arrested and deported, such as "Anna." The 18-year-old high
school student from Honduras now lives with a family in Iowa.
"Anna's father was murdered and her older sister kidnapped in
Honduras. She first fled to the United States in September 2019 with her mother
and her sister when she was 14 years old," it says. "Federal
immigration authorities arrested Anna and her family at the U.S.-Mexico border
and forced them to undergo removal proceedings in Mexico, under a program
called the Migrant Protection Protocols. An immigration judge ordered Anna and
her mother removed in January 2020."
Anna returned to the United States from Mexico alone in February 2020,
"again seeking protection," it says. She was arrested by federal
immigration authorities and sent to a shelter for unaccompanied children run by
the Office of Refugee Resettlement, or ORR. "In May 2020, ORR released
Anna to family living in the United States. Anna submitted an affirmative
asylum application, which was approved in March 2021."
According to the lawsuit, if SF 2340 goes into effect, "Anna
will be subject to prosecution, imprisonment, and removal to Mexico." But
she is not a Mexican citizen and does not have family there, "but she also
cannot return to Honduras, where her father was killed and where she faces
persecution," it adds.
Both lawsuits seek from the courts a declaration that SF 2340 is unlawful in
its entirety and an order preliminarily and permanently enjoining the
defendants from enforcing the law.
Gov. Kim Reynolds, responding to the lawsuits in a Nov. 9 statement, said,
"As Governor, I have the responsibility to protect the citizens of Iowa.
Since President Biden refuses to enforce our nation's immigration laws --
threatening the safety of our citizens -- Iowa will step in."
Tom Chapman, executive director of the Iowa Catholic Conference, the public
policy voice of Iowa's bishops, said, "The filing of the lawsuits was not
unexpected and we hope the law ultimately doesn't go into effect."
Iowa's bishops say that laws such as SF 2340 "place a
disproportionate emphasis on punitive sanctions, undermine family unity, reduce
humanitarian protections and provide no viable solutions for long-term
residents without legal status."
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Barb Arland-Fye is editor of The Catholic Messenger, newspaper of the
Diocese of Davenport.
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