U.S. States Begin Mass Arrests Of Illegal Immigrants

Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a bill into law on Wednesday that will make it a state crime for a person to enter Iowa after having been deported or denied entry into the United States.

The new law, which is set to take effect July 1 but could face court challenges, joins Iowa with Texas in seeking to enforce immigration limits outside the federal system. Ms. Reynolds, who had said she would sign the legislation, accused federal officials of failing to secure the U.S.-Mexico border and putting Americans at risk.

“The Biden administration has failed to enforce our nation’s immigration laws, putting the protection and safety of Iowans at risk,” Ms. Reynolds, a Republican, said in a statement. “Those who come into our country illegally have broken the law, yet Biden refuses to deport them. This bill gives Iowa law enforcement the power to do what he is unwilling to do: enforce immigration laws already on the books.”

A White House spokesman, Angelo Fernández Hernández, defended the administration’s approach to the border, saying in a statement that federal officials had “removed or returned” hundreds of thousands of people from the United States this year. He also criticized congressional Republicans for failing to pass a border security bill.

State Representative Steven Holt, a Republican who supported the bill, said after it passed in his chamber that “states can and must act.”

“Many other states are standing up to protect their sovereignty, and their citizens and Iowa…   must do the same,” Mr. Holt said.

The signing of the law showed that Republicans, even those far from the border, plan to continue focusing on immigration issues in this election year. Ms. Reynolds is one of several governors who have sent National Guard troops and law enforcement officers to Texas to support Gov. Greg Abbott’s increasingly assertive approach to policing the border.

But the Iowa law, like one passed in Texas that has been challenged in court, goes beyond securing the border, and seeks to carve out a state role in policing illegal immigration, which has long been the exclusive domain of federal law enforcement. The Biden administration has called the Texas law, which makes it a state crime to cross the border illegally, an unconstitutional infringement on federal authority over immigration.

More states could follow in Texas and Iowa’s footsteps. Arizona’s Republican-controlled Legislature passed a measure this year that would have authorized the state police to arrest undocumented immigrants, but te bill was vetoed by the governor, a Democrat.

Several other states are weighing similar bills, including Louisiana, where the Senate recently passed a bill that would make it a state crime to be in Louisiana while in the country without authorization.