U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service Processing Center. (Stock photo by Matt Gush/Getty Images)
Iowa law enforcement officials could be subject to a Class D felony charge if they defy state law on immigration enforcement under a bill approved by a House subcommittee Wednesday.
House Study Bill 285 states that law enforcement officers, including elected sheriffs, who “knowingly and intentionally” fail to comply with the state’s laws regarding federal immigration law enforcement, would face a Class D felony charge. The charge is punishable by up to five years in jail and fines of between $1,025 and $10,245.
The discussion on comes in the wake of comments made on social media by Winneshiek County Sheriff Dan Marx in February. Marx wrote that he would not comply with immigration detainer requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or some other federal agencies outside of “valid” judicial warrants and court orders. Gov. Kim Reynolds filed a complaint against Winneshiek County with the Iowa Attorney General’s office in early February following the post, and sent a letter to the county board of supervisors and Marx stating that the sheriff’s policy was at odds with Iowa Code on enforcement of immigration laws.
“Understand that a sheriff and county can become ineligible to receive any state funds if the local entity is found to have intentionally violated the provisions of chapter 27A,” Reynolds wrote in the letter.
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Rep. Steven Holt, R-Denison, told reporters the legislation was introduced as a way to ensure immigration law enforcement is followed in Iowa Code by creating penalties for individual actors without jeopardizing funding for an entire local jurisdiction.
“I don’t know if you’ve ever been in a school class and everybody gets chewed out for something one kid did — well, that’s kind of the penalty in the (law) right now,” Holt said. “It kind of punishes everybody in a county or a city for something one official might have done. So this is more targeted to the person that’s actually responsible for it.”
However, Tony Phillips with the Iowa State Sheriffs’ & Deputies’ Association said the bill would impose “significant consequences” for law enforcement officers who fail to comply with this section of Iowa Code, which encompasses more than just ICE detainer requests. Phillips said under the proposal, law enforcement officers could be subject to a Class D felony for failing to provide “reasonable or necessary” enforcement assistance to federal immigration officers, which he said could be the source of disagreements or litigation.
“I understand the law puts ‘knowingly and intentionally’ into this for the penalties, but there are situations that reasonable minds to disagree about what was needed to follow this,” Phillips said. “… If there’s simply a misunderstanding or maybe a lack of resources to provide enforcement assistance, I now have a member of law enforcement that risks a Class D felony.”
Rep. Lindsay James, D-Dubuque, said “we all can agree that we need meaningful immigration reform,” but did not support the legislation.
“I’d like to see what happens on a federal level, before wading into the complexities around this particular issue,” James said.
Rep. Skyler Wheeler, R-Hull, supported the measure moving forward, saying he wished the bill did not have to come up but that it came forward because “one individual wanted of his five minutes of fame.”
Holt said he plans to discuss with his caucus if the penalty in the bill would be adjusted to a serious misdemeanor charge instead of a Class D felony, but said he supports the bill as a way to ensure that Iowa law enforcement complies with state law on immigration enforcement. He invoked the deaths of Laken Riley and Jocelyn Nungaray, two U.S. citizens who were murdered by undocumented immigrants, as reason for the need to support immigration law enforcement.
“I think anyone not supporting doing all we can to ensure we do not have a Laken- or Jocelyn-style tragedy in Iowa — that just doesn’t have any credibility with me,” Holt said. “And any officers sworn to uphold the law who would dare suggest that concerns about imaginary lawsuits or details in language trumps the safety of the Lakens and Jocelyns out there, I have to call BS.”
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