Sen. Chuck Grassley: Iowa ‘should and will accept Ukrainian refugees’

MARION — Iowa “should and will accept Ukrainian refugees” if they seek to come here, U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley said Friday during a visit to Marion.

President Joe Biden announced this week that the United States would accept up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees fleeing the Russia invasion of their country. While the administration believes most refugees will stay in nearby countries in case they are ever to return home, the United States joined other Western counties in helping to address the crisis. In a fact sheet describing the initiative, the White House said it was "working to expand and develop new programs with a focus on welcoming Ukrainians who have family members in the United States."

“Everyone should be properly vetted to make sure they’re no threat to our national security,” Grassley said. “For the emergency we’re in, what’s happening now in Ukraine, I think we have a situation where for humanitarian purposes we have to be helpful.”

The month-old war in Ukraine has caused devastation the Republican senator compared with World War II and has forced millions from their homes. For Ukrainian refugees coming to Iowa, he said, there would be plenty of jobs available.

Grassley, however, stressed this immigration situation is not the same as the people who cross the border the illegally into the United States, who are “breaking our laws.”

Like Grassley did, a spokesman for Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds said Iowa “is willing to accept Ukrainian refugees that have been properly vetted through the system.” A spokesman for the Iowa Department of Human Services said the department is aware of Biden’s offer but had not yet heard any details from the federal government how the resettlement would work.

The Gazette reported Thursday that Cecilia Rokusek, president and chief executive officers of the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library in Cedar Rapids, has been in contact with Iowa’s elected officials about bringing Ukrainian refugees to Iowa.

Through her connections to Ukraine, she’s been in touch with two families who have asked about coming to the United States.

Critical race theory

Grassley held a question-and-answer session Friday with students and parents with the Marion Homeschool Network, which was not open to the media. Afterward, Grassley said parents have a right to have a voice in their child’s education.

“Voters are expressing their views” on parental involvement in education, he said, adding that parents had asked about “critical race theory” earlier during the Q&A.

The election for governor of Virginia last year was partially run on this issue, with the Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin — now governor — defending parents who are concerned about the way race issues are taught in school, Grassley said.

Grassley, however, said he doesn’t know if critical race theory is being taught in schools. But Iowa education experts have said aspects of it were taught in classrooms, even before legislation banned the teaching of divisive concepts in K-12 schools.

Reynolds signed into law House File 802 in June 2021, which bans Iowa governmental entities — including K-12 schools — and public colleges from teaching “divisive concepts,” including that moral character is determined by one’s race or sex, or that the United States and Iowa are fundamentally or systematically racist.

“It’s perfectly legitimate as a matter of history to teach about slavery in the early days of this country,” Grassley said. “Nobody’s going to say you shouldn’t do that, but if you’re putting literature out that if you’re white … you’ve got to apologize for who you are — I was born this way, just like Black people are born that way. We’ve got the same red blood.”

The Iowa Legislature --- where Grassley’s grandson, Pat, is speaker of the Iowa House — is “the school board for the state,” the senator said, adding that some states leave these types of decisions to local school boards instead.

Supreme Court nomination

Critical race theory was among questions asked by Republicans this week as the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee held hearings on the nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court. If approved, she would be the first Black woman on the court.

Grassley, the ranking Republican on the committee, said Friday he would reveal how he’d vote April 4 — the day the committee is expected to vote on her nomination.

Few if any Republicans are expected to support the nomination when it comes to a floor vote. Without GOP support, Democrats — if they are united — could approve the pick only with the tiebreaking vote of Vice President Kamala Harris.

Comments: (319) 398-8411; grace.king@thegazette.com

Erin Murphy of The Gazette Des Moines Bureau contributed.