Iowa police and sheriff’s departments would be required to enforce any federal order to detain someone suspected of being in the country illegally under a bill advancing in the Iowa House.
During a hearing on the bill today, a lobbyist for the Iowa Police Chiefs Association said the bill would add more responsibilities to departments already struggling with tight budgets and limited staff. Mike Tupper, who recently retired after serving as Marshalltown’s police chief, said local officers already work with their federal partners to address legitimate public safety concerns. “But local law enforcement should not be involved with the immigration enforcement mission,” Tupper said. “It will diminish communication, it will diminish communication in our communities and ultimately diminishes public safety.”
John Noble of Des Moines called the bill “a distraction” from Iowa’s “real problems,” like a rising cancer rate and a declining education system. “This bill, along with a lot of other bills we’ve seen come up in the Iowa House are a way to get us looking at our immigrant neighbors and fearing our immigrant neighbors,” Norris said.
Vanessa Marcano-Kelly, board chair of the Iowa Movement for Migrant Justice, directly criticized the bill’s sponsors. “Representatives Holt and Wheeler and the other extremists that have taken over our government continue to push a battery of xenophobic and racist bills like this one in attempt to make Iowa stray from our historical values of welcoming immigrants, valuing people and caring for our neighbors.”
Representative Steven Holt, a Republican from Denison, responded. “There is a huge difference between legal and illlegal immigration,” Holt said. “…Many groups today seek to erase that difference.”
Holt said there are criminals who came across the border illegally and some of them are in Iowa. “It is vital that we have complete cooperation between local, state and federal authorities as we work to remove these dangerous individuals from our communities and make everyone — immigrant and citizen — safer,” Holt said.
Republican Representative Skyler Wheeler said an illegal immigrant recently stabbed two people in Hull, his hometown. “If you are here illegally, you are a criminal,” Wheeler said. “…Our job is to keep our citizens safe. They come first and foremost. I am happy to move this forward and I hope it becomes law.”
The bill requires Iowa law enforcement agencies to sign a memorandum, pledging to cooperate with federal agencies enforcing immigration laws. According to the ACLU of Iowa, by Wednesday night 157 jurisdictions in the United States had signed the memo and agreed to have local officers serve federal immigration warrants and jail suspected illegal aliens.