Iowa

U.S. Justice Department threatens court challenge to Iowa immigration law • Iowa Capital Dispatch

Published

2 years ago

May 3, 2024

U.S. Justice Department threatens court challenge to Iowa immigration law • Iowa Capital Dispatch

The U.S. Department of Justice intends to file a lawsuit against an Iowa law making illegal immigration a state crime if the law remains in effect, a top official wrote in a letter to Gov. Kim Reynolds and state Attorney General Brenna Bird.

First reported by the Des Moines Register, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian Boynton said in a letter to the Republican state officials that the federal department “intends to bring a lawsuit to enforce the supremacy of federal law” and enjoin Senate File 2340, blocking it from being enforced.

The Iowa law, signed by Reynolds in April, allows state law enforcement officers to charge people with an aggravated misdemeanor if they have been deported, denied admission or removed from the U.S., or if they have an order to leave the country. People with a criminal history can be charged with higher penalties for being in the country unlawfully under the new measure.

Additionally, state courts are able to order the deportation of people charged, with state agencies and law enforcement having the ability to transport migrants to U.S. ports of entry to ensure they leave the country. People who do not leave as ordered can be charged with a felony for failure to comply.

The law is set to go into effect July 1. However, the federal justice department plans to stop the law from being enforced before that date. In the letter, Boynton gave Reynolds and Bird a deadline of Tuesday to suspend enforcement of the law or the Department of Justice will take action.

“If you have not confirmed by May 7, 2024, that Iowa will forbear such enforcement, the United States intends to pursue all appropriate legal remedies to ensure that Iowa does not interfere with the functions of the federal government,” the letter states.

In the message, Boynton said the Iowa law is “preempted by federal law and violates the United States Constitution,” and that the measure is “contrary” to the federal government’s goal of processing undocumented immigrants in the U.S. in a way that is consistent with the Immigration and Nationality Act.

The state measure conflicts with federal immigration law in several ways, he wrote, including “various provisions of federal law permitting noncitizens to seek protection from removal to avoid persecution or torture,” Boynton wrote, in addition to undermining U.S. foreign relations.

Boynton said the Iowa law “effectively creates a separate state immigration scheme by imposing state criminal penalties for violating the federal prohibition on unlawful reentry into the United States,” and is intruding on the federal government’s oversight of immigration law and enforcement.

However, Reynolds and Bird argued the law is necessary because President Joe Biden and his administration are not enforcing current immigration laws.

“The only reason we had to pass this law is because the Biden Administration refused to enforce the laws already on the books. I have a duty to protect the citizens of Iowa,” Reynolds said in a statement. “Unlike the federal government, we will respect the rule of law and enforce it.”

Bird also criticized Biden in a post on social media about the lawsuit, saying that Iowa “will not back down.”

Not only has Biden refused to enforce federal immigration laws & secure our border, he is now threatening to block states like IA from enforcing our own laws.
Our message to Biden is this: IA will not back down & stand by as our state’s safety hangs in the balance. If Biden…
— Brenna Bird (@BrennaBird) May 3, 2024
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On Wednesday, immigrant advocacy groups rallied across the state in opposition to the new law. Immigrants and allies expressed concerns about the law breaking up families, as well as potentially leading to discrimination against Latino Iowans.

Some law enforcement officers have also brought up concerns about enforcing the law. Des Moines Police Chief Dana Wingert told the Associated Press in March that Des Moines police forces are “not equipped, funded or staffed” to take on enforcement of immigration laws.

Iowa is not the only state to pass a state-level immigration law. The Iowa law is modeled after a similar 2023 Texas measure also allowing state law enforcement and courts to take action on illegal immigration. The Texas law is currently under a preliminary injunction, having been challenged in federal appeals court by the U.S. Justice Department and civil rights organizations.

Reynolds has sent personnel with Iowa National Guard and Iowa Department of Public Safety to Texas to support the state’s law enforcement efforts along the U.S.-Mexico border in both 2021 and 2023. In March, the governor announced plans to deploy 115 National Guard troops and 10 DPS officers to Texas, taking on duties like assistance with “the Texas Military Department’s security objectives.”

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt also signed a similar measure into law earlier this week that went into effect immediately. The Oklahoma law establishes a crime for “impermissible occupation,” the act of entering the state without legal authorization to be in the country. The first offense is a misdemeanor charge with an order to leave the state within 72 hours, and a second offense would charge someone with a felony, with up to two years in prison if convicted.

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Iowa

Gov. Kim Reynolds signs ban on local civil rights ordinances

Published

2 hours ago

March 11, 2026

Press Room

Gov. Kim Reynolds signs ban on local civil rights ordinances

DES MOINES, Iowa (Iowa State Capitol Bureau) – Local governments in Iowa will no longer be able to protect civil rights that are not protected by the state.

Gov. Kim Reynolds signed the measure into law Tuesday. The law follows another bill Reynolds signed last year that removed gender identity as a protected class in Iowa.

When lawmakers first debated the legislation, protesters showed up in opposition. Those against the law say local governments should be able to protect their residents.

Reynolds said the law clears up confusion for businesses and schools.

“We just believe that locals should follow the state laws, especially when it comes to civil rights,” Reynolds said. “Otherwise, we have a mismatch of rights out there, and we felt that it was the right thing to do.”

Reynolds also said the law ensures girls are protected in women’s sports and in public bathrooms.

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‘¿Habla español?’ Iowa schools look overseas to find Spanish teachers

Published

14 hours ago

March 11, 2026

Press Room

‘¿Habla español?’ Iowa schools look overseas to find Spanish teachers

The Exchange Visiting Teachers from Spain helps schools find qualified Spanish teachers.
World language teaching positions are hard to fill in rural areas.

The sounds of Dallas Center-Grimes High School Spanish students singing “¿Por Que Te Vas?” by Jeanette with varying levels of gusto and prodding by teacher Antton Zuazu Hernández may seem like an unusual way to learn.

But the sing-along is how Zuazu Hernández, a native of Spain, helps engage his students and share his culture as part of a teacher-exchange program.

“I feel I’m a messenger in a way, and this is part of the program,” he said. “We’re expected to both bring our culture here and bring your culture back to Spain.”

Zuazu Hernández — who taught English in Spain — is among 26 bilingual teachers in Iowa as part of an exchange program between the Iowa Department of Education and Spain’s Ministry of Education and Culture.

“(The program) was created to address the shortage of qualified Spanish teachers in the state and helps expose students to different world cultures,” said Heather Doe, the department’s spokesperson. “… The Exchange Visiting Teachers from Spain program has been very successful in helping schools, especially in rural communities, hire highly qualified Spanish teachers.”

Iowa has nearly 1,200 world language teachers in kindergarten through college, according to the Iowa World Language Association website.

Some foreign language teachers in Iowa moved to the U.S. and later obtained teaching credentials. Others were recruited to work in Iowa schools.

Iowa schools, including Waukee Community School District, even offer financial incentives as a recruitment tool for hard to fill positions.

“Many of them, like me, will arrive with teaching experience from our home countries, but in the process of validating the credentials in the U.S. we find obstacles,” said Elizabeth Bulthuis, a Waukee High School world languages teacher who immigrated from Ecuador in 2003, “and the validating of credentials also can be lengthy and costly, because of all the educational systems and how they are structured differently.”

Exchange program is beneficial to schools, superintendent

The Spain exchange program — which brings hundreds of teachers to schools across the U.S. — comes with several requirements.

The Spanish teachers must be certified in the language with at least two years of experience, Doe said. Additionally, candidates go through a vetting process at the federal, state and local levels. Teachers also attend a three-day state orientation.

Schools and districts participating in the program pay an $895 fee to offset licensing and orientation costs, Doe said.

The program is a blessing for rural areas struggling to fill positions teaching foreign language, special education, math and science.

“It’s very difficult to even get an applicant,” said Deron Stender, the superintendent at the rural Creston Community School District, “… When I say it’s difficult to even find (the candidates) they don’t exist. And if they do, they’re probably going to be in a larger metro, urban, suburban areas where there’s just more opportunities.”

St. Anthony’s conducts bilingual class for its students

St. Anthony’s Catholic school brings Spanish speaking teachers to the U.S. to teach students the language.

Zuazu Hernández taught Spanish and drove a bus at Creston during the 2024-25 school year. But falling enrollment and budget cuts resulted in his position being eliminated.

A program drawback is teachers only have three-year visas, he said.

“When you have a very good individual that comes to your district from a foreign country after the third year, you still have that need again,” Stender said. “So, we just open it back up to the same program, but you’re doing another refresh of the process, and while that’s a challenge, it’s still better than not having a teacher in the classroom.”

Not every world language teacher comes from Spain

Another issue schools have faced is filling teaching positions for immersion programs.

In the early 2000s, St. Anthony’s started a Spanish-immersion program after several families with children of Honduras and Guatemala descent wanted their kids to have a Catholic school education and maintain their connection to the Spanish language.

“A lot of teachers go to school to teach Spanish, but they go to school to teach it as a standalone Spanish class,” principal Jennifer Raes said. “… We were really searching for teachers that could come here and teach in any subject, just a regular teacher, but also has the skills of teaching in Spanish and English.”

Marisol Guerra, a Honduras native, came to the U.S. in 2010 to help start St. Anthony’s program. Guerra manage to come to the U.S. as part of that year’s Spain exchange program cohort.

More than a decade later, the school offers classes in English and an immersive track where 85% of the students’ day is spent learning in Spanish. While families were hesitant in the beginning to take part in the immersion program, there is now a waitlist of almost a dozen families.

“There was uncertainty, (but) they wanted their children to learn a second language,” Guerra said, “and they wanted without knowing, I think, they also were exposing them to other cultures and opening their minds to other things.”

The over the years, St. Anthony’s has employed teachers who moved to America from Spain, Mexico and other Latin American countries.

The over representation of teachers from Spain likely is due to other countries not offering similar exchange programs, said Bulthuis, a member of the Iowa World Language Association.

It took several years for the veteran teacher — who came to Iowa in 2005 — to become credentialed to teach in the U.S. because she was not part of an exchange program.

“I think that world language teachers can be difficult to recruit because the pool of candidates is relatively small, so teachers need a strong language proficiency, cultural knowledge and all the teaching certifications,” said Bulthuis, who left Ecuador in 2003 because of the country’s financial crisis, “(but) many people who speak another language also have opportunity in other careers.”

Bulthuis does not recommend loosening the criteria to teach in Iowa but suggests improving or streamlining the process for an international teacher to obtain a state teaching license.

“… Not every Spanish speaking country is going to have (an exchange) program like that in place to help their community,” Bulthuis said,

Cultural exchange

Educators say employing international teachers goes beyond language skills.

“International educators can bring tremendous cultural and linguistic expertise to the classroom, which is an incredible skill and very valuable for students,” Bulthuis said.

That cultural exchange can carry over into a school’s lesson plans.

Zuazu Hernández often lets his American students’ interests drive what he teaches them about Spanish culture. These questions have ranged from wanting more insight into bullfighting, the Spanish school system, stereotypes and politics.

“Sometimes, they are more interested in me as a person, or the things I can tell them about Spain than the actual Spanish language,” he said, “but they have that curiosity that I think all teachers, we have to take advantage of.”

While reading “¡Viva el toro!” by Lisa Ray Turner and Blaine Ray, a novel about bullfighting, Zuazu Hernández talked to students about his family’s love of the cultural spectacle and how it is losing popularity in Spain because of how the bulls are treated.

Zuazu Hernández is open about his perspective on the practice to his students.

“To me, bullfighting is not worth sustaining just because it’s a tradition — traditions are not always good or acceptable — but rather because it’s an art, and it expands the depth of human understanding of the most intense truths in life, with death as the scariest of all,” he told the Des Moines Register in an email.

His students appreciate his candidness and the chance to learn from teachers with different lived experiences.

“I like having different teachers because they have different experiences, and I think it adds to the overall class,” said Grace Heston, an 11th grader Dallas Center-Grimes High School. “When you’re learning about Spanish, you’re not just learning about a language, you’re learning about the culture associated with it.”

Samantha Hernandez covers education for the Register. Reach her at (515) 851-0982 or svhernandez@gannett.com.

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Iowa

NCAA Wrestling Championships at-large bids announced

Published

1 day ago

March 10, 2026

Press Room

NCAA Wrestling Championships at-large bids announced

The 330 wrestlers competing in Cleveland at the NCAA Championships are now set.

After the conference tournaments established the lion’s share of wrestlers, the NCAA announced the at-large bids on Tuesday, March 10, completing the rest of the field.

Brackets and seeds will be announced on March 10, but here’s a look at the contingents each state of Iowa program will be sending after the at-large bids were announced.

Iowa wrestling NCAA qualifiers

For the third year in a row, Iowa wrestling will be sending nine to the NCAA Championships. Victor Voinovich did not earn an at-large bid at 157 pounds after finishing ninth at the Big Ten Championships, one place outside of NCAA automatic qualification. He concludes his season with a 12-6 record.

Voinovich narrowly earned the starting job over Jordan Williams at 157, with Iowa coach Tom Brands saying it was very close, but Voinovich had shown a little more “fight” this year. Now that Voinovich hasn’t qualified for NCAAs, it’s a decision that will go further under the microscope.

What’s done is done, however, for Iowa. They’ll take Dean Peterson (125), Drake Ayala (133), Nasir Bailey (141), Ryder Block (149), Michael Caliendo (165), Patrick Kennedy (174), Angelo Ferrari (184), Gabe Arnold (197) and Ben Kueter (285) to Cleveland in hopes of salvaging what has been a tough season.

Iowa State wrestling NCAA qualifiers

For the first time since 2010, Iowa State will send all 10 wrestlers to the NCAA Championships. Vinny Zerban earned an at-large bid at 157 pounds despite falling short of the automatic qualifying threshold at the Big 12 Championships. Zerban suffered a concussion and medically forfeited out of the tournament after his first match in Tulsa. His health status will be worth monitoring NCAAs inch closer, from March 19-22.

The Cyclones look poised for one of their best postseasons in recent memory with their 10 qualifiers ―Stevo Poulin (125), Garrett Grice (133), Anthony Echemendia (141), Jacob Frost (149), Zerban, Connor Euton (165), MJ Gaitan (174), Isaac Dean (184), Rocky Elam (197) and Yonger Bastida (285). The loss of Evan Frost hurts the Cyclones, considering his pedigree and season as a whole, but Grice’s has earned several ranked wins since entering the lineup in February and could still add some much-needed team points as the team chases a team trophy.

Behind title contenders Elam and Bastida, proven podium threats in Poulin, Echemnedia, Jacob Frost and Zerban (if healthy), Iowa State will be in the mix for a top-four finish in Cleveland.

UNI wrestling NCAA qualifiers

Northern Iowa will send five to the NCAA Championships. Automatic qualifiers Julian Farber (133), Caleb Rathjen (149) and Ryder Downey (165) will be joined by Jared Simma (174) and Nick Fox (184), who each earned at-large bids. The number of qualifiers could extend to six, with Trever Anderson (125) being the alternate at 125 pounds for NCAAs. However, he had to medically forfeit out of the Big 12 Championships, so his health status would be in question if he got called up.

With that, Max Brady (141), Cael Rahnavardi (157), John Gunderson (197) and Adam Ahrendsen (285) will have their seasons come to an end. Brady, a true freshman, will still have three NCAA chances in his career after showing promising moments in relief of Cory Land’s season-ending injury. Gunderson, a U23 World team member, will return for next season as well. Rahnavardi and Ahrendsen were both in their final seasons of eligibility.

Following injuries to Land and Wyatt Voelker, it’s been a hard year for the Panthers. This is half the number of NCAA qualifiers that UNI had last season when they qualified 10 for the first time since 1986. The last time UNI had five or fewer qualifiers was 2016.

However, all five of their wrestlers have each shown moments of brilliance, either this season or in prior NCAA Championships. They may be a smaller crew than normal, but Downey, Rathjen, Farber, Simma and Fox are all ones to watch in Cleveland.

Eli McKown covers high school sports and wrestling for the Des Moines Register. Contact him at Emckown@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @EMcKown23.

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