Yesterday, lawyers from the Department of Justice (DOJ) and civil rights groups argued against an Iowa immigration law that would allow the state to bring criminal charges against immigrants who enter without authorization, report Scott McFetridge and Hannah Fingerhut of the Associated Press.
DOJ lawyers argued that the law flouts the federal government’s authority over immigration. Attorneys for the state said the law only would allow state officials to apply federal law.
The judge hearing the case said he would try to rule on the law before its July 1 effective date, Robin Opsahl reports in the Iowa Capital Dispatch. A similar law in Texas has been blocked in the courts, Opsahl notes.
F. Amanda Tugade of the Des Moines Register has more on the potential effects of the law. "If these laws aren't challenged, we're risking a situation where we have 50 states with 50 immigration policies, an unworkable system ...," Emma Winger, Deputy Legal Director at the American Immigration Council, said after the arguments.
In Florida, meanwhile, further legal filings are due Thursday after a judge blocked a portion of that state’s 2023 immigration law but then sought further legal briefing on how widely his injunction should apply, reports Dara Kam of the News Service of Florida.
Welcome to Tuesday’s edition of The Forum Daily. I’m Dan Gordon, the Forum’s strategic communications VP, and the great Forum Daily team also includes Jillian Clark, Samantha Siedow and Clara Villatoro. If you have a story to share from your own community, please send it to me at [email protected].
ALLIES — Changes in leadership throughout Central America are influencing U.S. efforts to engage other countries on reducing immigration, reports Jasmin Garsd of NPR. Despite U.S. endeavors to decrease irregular migration, analysts say deterrence alone doesn’t work over the long term. Garsd takes a closer look at the limits of deterrence — and experts’ views on whether the Biden administration’s new asylum
restrictions will work — in a separate NPR story.
BASE CAMP — The state of emergency Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) declared over immigration led to the creation of a base camp in the Florida Keys to search for Cuban and Haitian migrants traveling by sea, report Ana Ceballos and Michael Wilner of the Miami Herald. But the migrants haven’t come. The cost to taxpayers has been about $20 million so far, Ceballos and Wilner report.
CLOSER LOOKS — A Venezuelan family shares its journey to the U.S., ending with being turned away at the border after last week’s executive actions, with Michelle Jokisch Polo of NPR. And have a look at Los Angeles Times photographer Robert Gauthier’s vivid images from the border as the restrictions went into effect.
CALL ON CONGRESS — Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas pointed to Congress in discussing the timing of President Biden’s executive actions on the border and asylum in an interview with Martha Raddatz on ABC News’ "This Week." Mayorkas also called for congressional action moving forward, Miranda Nazzaro of The Hill reports. "We cannot resource the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of State, the Department of Justice with additional personnel," Mayorkas said. "We need Congress to legislate."
P.S. Reema Amin and Mina Bloom have been reporting on how schools in the city are responding to migrant arrivals. Read their latest collaboration in Chalkbeat Chicago and Block Club Chicago.
