Attorney General Brenna Bird today celebrated an important step forward at the U.S. Supreme Court in her fight to defend Iowa’s illegal reentry law. The Court has invited the Solicitor General of the United States to file a brief expressing the views of the federal government in Bird v. Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice, Iowa’s petition asking the Justices to reverse a lower-court ruling that has blocked enforcing the law since 2024. The Court asks for the federal government’s views in only a small number of cases each Term.
Senate File 2340, signed by Governor Kim Reynolds in 2024, makes it a state crime for an illegal alien who has already been deported, removed, or denied admission to the United States to come back and enter or be found in Iowa. The law carries tougher penalties for illegal aliens who were removed after committing more crimes, and it mirrors the federal law that already makes illegal reentry a crime.
“Iowa’s law is simple: if you have already been deported, you cannot come back and break our laws again,” said Attorney General Bird. “Iowa won’t back down from defending a law that keeps our families safe from drug cartels, human traffickers, and repeat illegal border crossers. Today’s order brings us one step closer to the Supreme Court hearing our case and letting Iowa enforce the common-sense law our legislature passed.”
A coalition of 25 states, along with U.S. Senators Ted Cruz and Chuck Grassley and several other groups, filed briefs urging the Supreme Court to take up Iowa’s case.
Read the order on the docket here.
