In response to the US immigration crisis the Catholic bishops of Iowa have taken aim at both state and federal lawmakers. The bishops have called on the former to seek alternatives to a new law that allows the state to deport undocumented immigrants back to their home country, while calling on the latter to “do their job” and a find a solution to the seemingly never-ending and intractable problem at the US border.
On 10 April, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law SF 2340 – a law that makes it a crime for undocumented immigrants to enter, attempt to enter, or be found in Iowa if they have previously been deported or barred from entering the United States. If arrested under the law, a person could be required to return to the foreign nation they came from; if a person refuses to return from where they came, they will be charged with a felony.
