Activists in Iowa City protest state-level immigration law

IOWA CITY, Iowa (KCRG) – Activists across Iowa protested a state immigration law that was set to take effect July 1.

The law would allow law enforcement to file criminal charges against people with outstanding deportation orders or who previously had been denied entry to the U.S.

The law is currently not in effect due to a court challenge.

Max Villatoro was one of the people at the Iowa City rally to oppose SF 2340 on Monday night. He was there even though, in a way, he said he has nothing to fear from this law. That’s because deportation, the worst thing he could imagine, is something he’s already been through.

“They call [it] separation of family, but I will say it’s like destruction of family,” said Villatoro.

Villatoro was deported in 2015. He missed seven and a half years of his kids’ lives.

“When I came back, they’re already grown up, both of them.”

He is now in the U.S. legally, has a work permit, and is making progress toward being a permanent resident.

Critics of this new law worry that people like Villatoro— people who are here legally but who have been deported before—would be in danger of being removed from the country again.

“It would put people at risk who have been deported or have previously been removed from the country, of being removed again,” said Yaneli Canales, Villatoro’s niece.

Critics also say the law would encourage racial profiling. Manny Galvez said he’s a citizen, but he believes that’s not what a police officer would assume.

“It’s going to be so scary, because what they’re going to see in my face—they’re going to see my face, my skin, [and] most likely, they’re going to think I don’t have a document,” said Galvez.

Finally, critics echoed the judge who put the law on pause by saying federal immigration law preempts anything on the state level.

“Iowa cannot deport people. This is a federal issue,” said Galvez.

“We need to fix the immigration situation in this country. And the best [solution] is immigration reform,” he added.

TV9 reached out to Governor Kim Reynolds’ office to get a statement in response to this story. A representative shared the following:

“As the Attorney General’s office argued, the illegal re-entry legislation does not affect those who are in the country legally. The legislation makes it a state crime, just as it is federally, to re-enter Iowa if an individual has been denied admission or deported before, or left the country while under order of deportation. Every state is now a border state because of the Biden Administration’s open border policies.”

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