House Study Bill 534 advanced through an Iowa House subcommittee meeting on Thursday afternoon as Republican State Rep. Steve Holt moved it to the full committee despite “questions” from his colleagues and one liberal lobbyist.
The bill requires law enforcement officers in Iowa to be US citizens.
Connie Ryan with the Interfaith Alliance of Iowa Action Fund is registered undecided and said she questions why noncitizens can serve in the military but shouldn’t be allowed to serve as law enforcement officers.
“Is this fixing something that there’s been a problem,” she asked. “Has there been a problem with people who are not citizens doing something that they shouldn’t do? I’m just wondering what brought this about.”
Democrat State Rep. Lindsay James said she is curious how the bill would impact DACA recipients and green card holders. She is concerned if this would hinder workforce shortage issues and wants to hear how the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy director believes it would impact the state.
James praised the service to citizenship program offered through the National Guard and asked if something should be created for non-citizens to get a pathway to citizenship through serving in law enforcement.
Republican State Rep. Phil Thompson said he is interested in the context of the bill and, while he agrees with its sentiment, he also was deployed with a non-citizen in the military who earned citizenship that way.
Holt said there is a big difference between the military and law enforcement. The key difference, he said, is law enforcement officers arrest citizens of the United States.
“And those citizens of the United States have a Constitution and a Bill of Rights,” Holt said. “I think it is fundamentally flawed to have someone who is not a citizen of the United States having arrest power over American citizens.”
Several people contacted Holt after hearing about the bill in support and flabbergasted that such a bill is even necessary.
There is a recent case of a noncitizen being given a waiver to be a law enforcement officer in Iowa, according to Holt. And while that individual may be an upstanding person, Holt reiterated his position that a noncitizen should not have arrest powers over citizens of the U.S.
