We have totally lost control of our border and are suffering a soft invasion. This is unsustainable for our nation and will increasingly negatively impact our state.
Since President Biden came into office, about 11 million people have entered the United States illegally, a number of people about the size of the state of Georgia.
In December 2023 alone, according to Border Patrol officials, about 300,000 illegals have come into the country.
It is estimated about 18,000 unaccompanied Asian men have entered the U.S., most about military age.
A known and unknown number on the terror watch list have come in.
Also criminals, human traffickers, both sex traffickers, drug traffickers, labor traffickers, and those from other countries’ mental institutions have come in. Border Patrol estimates that for every person apprehended, 2-3 avoid detection.
The numbers are misleading because whether caught or not, such people are treated very much the same – ultimately released on their own recognizance for years. They are not held to account, not vetted, and their locations and true intent are unknown.
Border communities are overrun and the cartels and traffickers are perpetrating unconscionable and inhumane actions on U.S. citizens and illegal immigrants, both adults and children alike. Many of these illegals are “owned” by the cartels and must submit to servitude in order to pay back money they borrowed to come here and to keep the cartels from harming their families.
The cartels control, as well as tax, every person and item which crosses into the United States from Mexico. Thousands of dollars are charged those who travel through Mexico and cross the border either legally or illegally each day. The amount is often based on ethnicity (Chinese are charged more than Guatemalans). The Mexican government does not control its own border with the U.S, but criminals inside the country are making billions of dollars per year.
Illicit drugs are pouring into our nation with, or separate from, the invasion of migrants. Thus far in 2023, 418,000,000 doses of fentanyl have been confiscated, again those numbers do not include what was not seized. Narcotics smugglers often push many migrants across the border in one location as a distraction, as drugs are brought across elsewhere.
Based on numbers presented in sworn testimony before Congress, over 345,000 minors have entered the United States since 2021. At a minimum, 85,000 children who have passed through our border checkpoints during that same period cannot be found. This alone is a crisis of epic proportions.
The United States Government, at the federal level, is not incompetent – it is complicit in this crime. Regardless of the motive, the numbers of people coming across our border could not happen without the cooperation of those responsible for the sovereignty of our nation. They are failing by design. To be clear, these are the officials who make policy and choose to ignore existing laws, not those intrepid guardians working on the front lines each day.
Texas has sent thousands of illegals to sanctuary cities like New York City and Chicago across the country. They are complaining now about their inability financially and logistically to handle the influx. How long before Chicago begins sending them to Dubuque or Davenport if they haven’t started already?
Iowa is partnered with Texas in helping to defend the border, having sent 109 national guardsmen last year.
Sen. Grassley is asking for Iowa county sheriffs to assist in providing information to expose cartel influence in Iowa.
Our state cannot handle this influx of illegals. Some communities are already strained by the illegals they have now. We must do more to protect our state.
That’s why I introduced the following bill. It is moving through committee now:
SF 2211 – Criminalizes the act of being an illegal alien in Iowa. Makes illegal immigration a state crime, ranging from a misdemeanor to a felony. Gives Iowa law enforcement authorities the power to stop, arrest and jail people who are suspected of entering the state illegally on new, state-level illegal entry charges. Arresting officers must have probable cause. The law would also allow Iowa judges to order migrants suspected of committing the new illegal entry misdemeanor crime the choice of returning to Mexico (de facto deportation orders) or continuing their prosecution. Migrants who don’t leave could face arrest again under more serious felony charges.
Bars state officials from arresting migrants in certain locations, including schools, places of worship and health care facilities, including those where sexual assault forensic examinations are conducted. The law cannot be enforced against people lawfully present in the U.S., including those who were granted asylum or who are enrolled in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. This bill is the same as the bill recently passed in Texas to help Texas law enforcement defend the southern border.
There has been disagreement between the state of Texas and the federal government regarding the constitutionality of Texas’ action. The dispute is now being litigated.
Here are some excerpts from a law review article written in 2012 entitled The State War Power: a Forgotten Constitutional Clause that I find compelling:
“The Constitution recognizes a State War Power wherein a state may engage in war, independent of any federal action, if invaded by a hostile force. This power is both antecedent to, and affirmatively acknowledged in, the Constitution in Article I, section 10, clause 3 which states, ‘No State shall, without the Consent of the Congress . . . engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.’ Although the purpose of section 10 is to catalog a list of restrictions on the states, the single affirmative power it gives to states is the right to engage in war when invaded or in imminent danger. This Note designates this power, the State War Power.
“The State War Power is essential to the preservation of federalism. It both preserves state sovereignty and allows states to compensate for the failure of the federal government to protect against invasion as required by the Guarantee Clause. The Guarantee Clause provides, ‘The United States shall . . . protect each [state] against Invasion . . . .’ The State War Power and the Guarantee Clause are intertwined because, when a state is invaded, both clauses are triggered; the United States has a duty to protect against the invasion and the state has a concurrent right to defend itself by engaging in war against the invading force. However, the strong likelihood is that the State War Power will only be exercised when the federal government has failed under the Guarantee Clause. Failure of the federal government under the Guarantee Clause is not a prerequisite for invocation of the State War Power, but there would be little necessity for the state to defend itself if the United States fulfills its obligation under the Guarantee Clause.
