Don’t make officers into the immigration police

For much of the nation’s history, immigration enforcement has been handled by the federal government. The Constitution grants Congress the power to establish a "uniform Rule of Naturalization." And courts have generally ruled in favor of Congressional supremacy over immigration enforcement.

Last week, Gov. Kim Reynolds released a memo ordering state law enforcement agencies, including the Department of Public Safety and Department of Corrections, to cooperate with federal agencies carrying out President Donald Trump’s “mass deportation” of undocumented immigrants.

At the same time Trump’s appointees in the U.S. Department of Justice are threatening to prosecute local officials who don’t cooperate with the president’s plan.

Together, they send a chilling message to law enforcement and disregard the notion immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility.

Under Reynolds’ order, state law officers are directed to contact federal officials if they have “reasonable suspicion” that an immigration law is being broken. The agencies are also directed to comply with requests from federal officers to detain an individual until federal agents can take custody.

Last year, Reynolds signed legislation making “illegal reentry” by an immigrant who was previously deported or denied entry a state crime. The law would make local law enforcement agencies add enforcing federal immigration laws to their duties.

A federal judge issued an injunction stopping enforcement of the law, ruling the law is invalid under the Constitution. On Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit affirmed the ruling, blocking enforcement of the law.

Turning state and local law enforcement officers into the immigration police is a bad idea. It will not make communities safer when members of the immigrant community, including legal immigrants, stop calling the police to report crimes or relay information to police, fearing friends or family could be arrested and deported.

Also, state and local law enforcement have plenty of duties to keep them busy without taking on this federal responsibility.

We strongly support efforts to find and deport illegal immigrants with criminal records, particularly if those offenses involved violence. We would also like to see our immigration laws reformed by Congress with common sense changes.

But sweeping up immigrants who work in critical jobs for Iowa agriculture and other sectors, separating families or grabbing migrants from communities where they have led law-abiding lives for years, is a cruel mistake.

Of course, much of this is politically motivated, anchored in misinformation about immigrant crime and fear of brown-skinned immigrants invading America.

Our nation’s history is filled with these moments. It was once the Irish, Italians, eastern Europeans, Chinese and Japanese Americans who suffered at the hands of nativists warning America would cease to exist if we welcomed immigrants.

Reynolds is ignoring that history while placing new burdens on law enforcement.

(319) 398-8262; editorial@thegazette.com