(DailyVantage.com) – The administration of President Joe Biden is bringing the State of Iowa to court over the recent legislation passed in the Hawkeye State that gives it the power to arrest and deport illegal immigrants.
The suit was filed by the U.S. Department of Justice in the federal court of Des Moines, Iowa. The DOJ argues that the state’s immigration law is an overstep of its authority and interferes with federal immigration law. Iowa is also facing similar suits filed by civic and immigration activist groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
Under the Iowa law, also known as S.F. 2340, individuals who are caught for multiple illegal border crossings can be imprisoned for up to two years. State judges are also given the authority to send offenders back to their home countries after serving out their sentences.
According to the groups who are opposing S.F. 2340, the law can also penalize individuals who have managed to secure legal residency status in the U.S., which includes people who have pending asylum applications as well as domestic violence survivors. According to the legal director of the Iowa Chapter of the ACLU, Rita Bettis Austen, states simply cannot go about “doing their own thing” with regard to immigration, which she said is under the purview of the federal government in the first place.
Matters such as “foreign relations, national security, humanitarian interests, and our [the U.S.] constitutional system” are why it is better for the federal government to implement immigration laws, Austen added.
Iowa’s new law follows the same tack as an earlier state law passed in Texas that gives the law enforcement in the Lone Star State the same powers of arrest and deportation of illegal immigrants. The Biden administration, as well as the same groups that oppose S.F. 2340 have also taken Texas to court over the issue. Nevertheless, other states – often conservative – such as Oklahoma, are still considering passing their own versions of the law in response to the swell of illegal immigrants crossing into the U.S. every day.
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