New Iowa Law Jumps on Anti-Immigrant Bandwagon

Yesterday, the governor of Iowa signed this legislation into law. The very first section is one of the most interesting. Check out this lingo:

1. A person who is an alien commits an offense if the person enters, attempts to enter, or is at any time found in this state under any of the following circumstances:
a. The person has been denied admission to or has been excluded, deported, or removed from the United States.
b. The person has departed from the United States while an order of exclusion, deportation, or removal is outstanding.

As Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the American Immigration Council pointed out on twitter, the breadth of the statutory language is surprising: “it makes it a crime for anyone who has ever been deported or denied entry to enter Iowa, EVEN IF the person has a green card or legal status now.”

Other provisions of the law mirror Texas’ SB 4 (and the Oklahoma proposal)–giving judges the authority to “requir[e] the person to return to the foreign nation from which the person entered or attempted to enter.”

Conservative news outlet the Washington Examiner covers this development and presents this quote from the Iowa governor on the new law: “This bill gives Iowa law enforcement the power to do what he is unwilling to do: enforce immigration laws already on the books.”

-KitJ