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“The court’s decision confirms that key members of our community should never have been criminalized simply for being here and living their lives in peace. This ruling restores a sense of safety and dignity to people who call Iowa home.”  Iowa cannot enforce a 2024 state statute that makes it a crime for a person previously deported to reenter the state, a federal appeals court said in a decision issued Thursday. The statute, passed by Iowa’s GOP-dominated Legislature in 2024 and signed into law by Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, also a Republican, makes it illegal under state law for noncitizens to reenter the country after having previously been removed or excluded. Iowa judges could order deportation or impose a sentence of up to 10 years in prison for refusal to comply with deportation. This statute, which would entirely bypass immigration enforcement by the federal government, conflicts with immigration-enforcement discretion Congress gives to federal officials and may not be enforced by the state, a three-judge panel of the St. Louis-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit said in its decision handed down Thursday. The Court of Appeals, however, directed the trial court to narrow the scope of its preliminary injunction to address whether it was a “universal injunction” or only relief to the plaintiffs and to decide whether an immigration organization has standing as a plaintiff to sue for injuries to itself. The decision, written by U.S. Circuit Judge Duane Benton, a George W. Bush appointee, was joined by Senior Circuit Judge Morris Arnold, a George H.W. Bush appointee, and U.S. Circuit Judge Jonathan Kobes, a Donald Trump appointee. “While we are disappointed with the Eighth Circuit’s ruling today, we are not done working to uphold Iowa’s laws,” Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird said in a statement Thursday. But Bird acknowledged that under President Trump, the immigration landscape has changed. “Under the Biden Administration, every state became a border state. Now, President Trump has delivered on his promise to close the borders and has shown his support for Iowa’s right to do the same in our state.” Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice, Jane Doe and Elizabeth Roe sued the state in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa in May 2024. Doe and Roe are noncitizen immigrants living in Iowa who claim to be harmed by the state’s law. Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice provides legal services and advocacy on immigration issues. The U.S. Justice Department filed a similar suit during the Biden administration, but it was later withdrawn after President Trump came into office. “This is a tremendous relief for thousands of Iowa families,” said Erica Johnson, founding executive director of Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice (Iowa MMJ), the organization that brought the lawsuit. “The court’s decision confirms that key members of our community should never have been criminalized simply for being here and living their lives in peace. This ruling restores a sense of safety and dignity to people who call Iowa home.” In holding that Iowa’s statute is preempted by federal immigration regulation, the Eighth Circuit pointed out that while an Iowa state judge “shall” order a person returned his or her country of origin, without exception, federal law gives federal officials discretion about the removal of such persons in cases such as those who express fear of returning to the country designated in an order of removal. “The effect of [Iowa’s statute], even as Bird interprets it on appeal, is to deliver aliens to the Des Moines International Airport with an order to leave the United States for the country from which they entered or attempted to enter, or face further criminal penalties for refusing to obey,” Benton wrote. “The effect of the act is for illegal aliens not just to leave Iowa but to remove themselves from the United States entirely.” Iowa’s statute thus “violates the principle that the removal process is entrusted to the discretion of the federal government,” he wrote Thursday.
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