Des Moines, Iowa — A federal judge plans to issue a ruling before July 1st on whether state officials may enforce an Iowa law to deport immigrants who’ve been deported before. The judge heard legal arguments in a Des Moines courtroom on Monday. Emma Winger, deputy legal director for the American Immigration Council, spoke during an online news conference.
Winger and an attorney from the US Department of Justice told the judge immigrants who were previously deported could be arrested even if they now have legal permission to be in the country.
In a written statement, Iowa Attorney General said President Biden has refused to enforce immigration laws and Iowa is doing the job for him by passing this law. Patrick Valencia, the state’s deputy solicitor general, told the judge states have police power to enforce federal laws and Iowa’s law would not affect immigrants who’ve been granted legal status to stay in the United States. Winger says while federal law gives protection to those who’ve been deported and return with the permission of the federal government, the Iowa law does not have that exception.
One of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit is an 18-year-old high school student who was brought into the US as a child by her mother after her father was murdered and her sister kidnapped in another country. The young woman, who was deported as a child, is living in Iowa now after being granted asylum. The federal government is suing to block similar illegal reentry laws in Texas and Oklahoma.
