The Justice Department moved on Friday to dismiss the Biden-era challenge of Iowa law, making it a national crime to enter the state for some undocumented immigrants. A victory for Iowa Republicans as the Trump administration pursues an offensive campaign against illegal immigration.
A brief filing filed by Justice Department attorneys in U.S. District Court in Des Moines did not immediately remove the Iowa judicial block, which enforces the law, because it did not provide any reason to seek dismissal. A similar filing Friday called for the fire of the Department of Justice's challenge to Oklahoma immigration law.
Justice Department officials did not respond to questions Friday evening about whether the Iowa submission showed a broader policy change regarding state-level immigration enforcement that opposed during the presidency of Joseph R. Biden Jr.
Iowa Attorney General Brenna Byrd, who defends state law in court, celebrated the firing motion, which linked to President Trump's approach to immigration.
“When the Biden administration couldn't do its job and secure the border, Iowa stepped up, Republican Byrd said in a statement. “Today, President Trump once again showed off his commitment to making America safe again by proving Iowa's return and stopping Biden's ridiculous lawsuit.”
Acting Assistant Attorney General Yaakov M. Ross was one of the Justice Department's attorneys who sought a case in Iowa. On Friday evening, no similar dismissal motion appeared in public dockets due to a challenge to similar Texas law that also appealed to Biden's Department of Justice to block.
A federal district judge blocked Iowa from enforcing the law last year on separate challenges between the Department of Justice and the immigration rights group Iowa Immigration Movement for Immigration. A three-judge panel in the U.S. Court of Appeals in the 8th Circuit maintained an injunction on the Department of Justice's assignment in the January ruling. The panel consisted of jurists appointed by the Republican president.
“As a political issue, new laws may be defensible,” Biden appointee Judge Stephen Rocher wrote when he granted the injunction last year. “As a matter of constitutional law, it's not.”
Rita Betis Austin, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union in Iowa, represents the immigration movement for justice, representing the Iowa immigration movement in the lawsuit.
The fight in Iowa is part of a broader effort by conservative states, including Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas, to open up the role of immigration enforcement by creating their own laws. In doing so they entered the legal realm that Biden's Department of Justice argued that it should be the exclusive territory of federal employees. The U.S. Supreme Court can ultimately consider the question of whether states can enforce their own immigration laws.
In November, voters in Arizona approved a voting measure that would make it a state crime to refuse to comply with an order to enter the state outside of its official port of entry or leave the United States. The law will not take effect unless the court allows another state to enforce similar laws.
Details of the new laws vary from state to state. The Iowa measures passed in 2024 by Republican-controlled Congress and signed into law by Gov. Kim Reynolds are less than others.
Under Iowa law, entering a state is a misdemeanor if a person has been deported previously, refused to enter the United States, or left the country while facing an expulsion order. In some cases, including when a person has been found to be a certain prior conviction, a national crime is a felony. Iowa State Police officers are not permitted to arrest them under law at schools, places of worship or medical facilities.
Known as HB 4156 and supported by Republicans, Oklahoma law would criminalize entering a state without entering the United States without legal permission. Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond's office celebrated the firing request on Friday.
“The nation's much-sized borders have been a serious threat to the safety and security of Oklahomans,” Drummond said in a statement. “The more you can ultimately force an HB 4156, the better.”
