Iowa Congressman Jim Nussle, the republican candidate for governor, met with the Iowa County Attorneys Association in Des Moines today to discuss crime issues. Nussle says he wants to create a “Seize and Deport Initiative” that would let local officials arrest illegal immigrants and immediately send them to deportation centers.
Nussle says this would make a big impact on stopping the flow of methamphetamine into the state. Nussle says 80-plus percent of the illegal meth is coming into Iowa from Mexico. Nussle says local law officers need to be able to take illegal immigrants directly to deportation centers to deal with the meth problem. Nussle says Homeland Security issues have had federal immigration officials turning away the illegal immigrants brought in by local officials, and that has to be changed.
Nussle says if local law officials get turned away a few times by federal officials, the local officials aren’t going through the process, and Nussle says that’s why local law officers need direct access to deportation centers. Nussle said the rule requiring sex offenders to not live within two-thousand feet of areas where children may be is also a key crime issue.
Nussle says he joins prosecutors in supporting “safe zones” around schools, libraries and events in public. “That’s probably a better way to prevent sexual predators and the criminal element to be involved in areas were kids will be present,” Nussle says, “I think those are some commons sense changes that actually strengthen our ability to protect children.” Nussle was asked if he favored the two-thousand foot law being repealed in favor of the safe zones.
Nussle says he “doesn’t look at it as a repeal. I look at it as a way to strengthen and improve the law.” Nussle says it would refine the law and make it more effective in all areas, not just schools. Nussle says as a former county attorney, he has a good understanding the problems faced by prosecutors.