By Art Cullen | Storm Lake Times Pilot
Our gratitude goes to federal district court Judge Stephen Locher for saving Iowa from some of its worst excesses. The judge put on hold a law passed by the legislature last session, set to take effect July 1, that would order local law enforcement to arrest and deport immigrants who previously had been deported — even if they are here legally.
It’s a terrible law that would rip places like Storm Lake, Denison and Marshalltown asunder. It is telling that the state Department of Public Safety issued no guidance to the Storm Lake Police Department on how to deal with this impending disaster because the governor didn’t really think this anti-immigrant law was actually going anywhere.
Immigration is federal turf. The U.S. Supreme Court has made it clear time and again. Yet states continue to pass laws trying to usurp that authority as part of our political theatre. Gov. Reynolds has gone so far as to patrol the border herself with the Iowa National Guard and the Iowa State Patrol. It’s absurd. It makes legal immigrants afraid that they have a target on their back. If the husband is legal but the wife is not the family could be ripped apart when the cops kick down the door. That would be our world in the Brave New Iowa.
Comes now a Mason City boy, Judge Locher, who earned a degree at Notre Dame and his law parchment at Harvard, nominated by Sen. Chuck Grassley, ranking member of the Judiciary Committee and senior Republican of the Senate, with the support of Sen. Joni Ernst, the junior Republican from Iowa. Go ahead and assail his judgment. He sad this:
“As a matter of politics, the new legislation might be defensible. As a matter of constitutional law, it is not.”
Might be defensible as a matter of politics. The judge speaks volumes in two words: might be.
But …
Other federal judges have put holds on similar state efforts to step onto federal turf, in Oklahoma and Texas, no less. Judge Locher comes to us from clerking on the conservative Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, and after serving as a federal prosecutor. He is telling us that this is all about politics and not about the law.
Reynolds replied within minutes of his order last Monday that Iowa is left “defenseless” in its wake from the onslaught of marauders coming over the border.
In fact, if the law were allowed to stand, Storm Lake, Denison and Marshalltown would fall apart under the current economic construct built by the Iowa political establishment: Bring in immigrants to do your dirty work, then terrorize them so they know who the boss is, and you can score points with the homies.
Locher calls it out.
This has nothing to do with public safety on Lakeshore Drive. In fact, Storm Lake Police Chief Chris Cole said he is concerned that the law could have the opposite effect by scaring immigrants further into the shadows. He said he has heard about their fears, even if they are here legally. Local law enforcement authorities have always held criminal suspects on detainer for immigration authorities after their cases have been adjudicated. It was not as if this state law were needed, except for sending a political message.
This sort of politics demeans us. It divides us. It turns innocents into criminals. We need them to scoop manure in Sioux County dairy barns infected with avian flu. We need them in the rendering operation. We need them to throw turkeys in the middle of the night. We need them at Buena Vista University. Varina needs them. St. Mary’s School needs them. We must quit listening to the fear mongers running for power, and look next door at our neighbor and ask what it is that makes Iowa home.
Judge Locher gets it. There’s politics, and then there is the fairness of the law evenly applied without fear or favor. There is a federal system over which we fought a Civil War. Immigrants are not overloading Calhoun County or Des Moines. We are not defenseless. If a drunk Mexican is walking down the street he won’t make it far before getting a ride to jail. If the jailer calls immigration and tells them that we have a drunk Mexican without papers and a public intox rap, the folks in Omaha will tell the BV County Jail to not hold their breath while looking for the ICE paddy wagon. The Mexican sobers up, and goes to work on Monday scooping out a hog confinement or slicing pork chops. That’s how it actually works in Iowa. There are ways to improve all that, for sure. The judge is saying that this is not the way. The Iowa way is to respect the rule of law and the constitutional order of federal supremacy. Or, it used to be. Thanks to an Iowa boy made good as a judge for reminding us, again.
