Iowa Immigration Law Encroaches on Federal Authority, US Argues

The Department of Justice and a migrant advocacy group urged a federal appeals court panel Thursday to keep on hold an Iowa law criminalizing illegal re-entry into the state, saying immigration is the solely the responsibility of the federal government.

A lower court properly issued a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of Senate File 2340 because the law was pre-empted in its entirety by federal law and invalid under the supremacy clause of the Constitution, DOJ attorney Leif Overvold told the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit during oral argument. But Iowa’s solicitor general Eric Wessan argued the preliminary ...