Black Hawk County Sheriff says he won't enforce new Iowa immigration law

WATERLOO, Iowa — The Black Hawk County Sheriff said he won't be enforcing the new immigration law in Iowa.

The law recently signed by Governor Kim Reynolds establishes a new state crime called "illegal reentry." It makes it illegal for someone to enter Iowa after being previously deported or barred from entering the United States, and law enforcement can arrest or deport them.

Black Hawk County Sheriff Tony Thompson said without any way of knowing a person's history of being deported, there's no way to enforce the law.

"Emulating someone else's problem here in the center of the heartland is a far different cry than emulating somebody's problem right there on the border," said Sheriff Thompson.

He said the federal government has the names of people who have been deported before - something his office is unable to access.

"This is federal record, this is ICE information, right, this is Border Patrol information. So all of that is well-intentioned, but the challenge for us is, if it doesn't exist, we can't create the record," said Thompson.

Iowa's News Now asked Thompson if he has communicated this information to Gov. Reynolds or someone in authority.

He said, "Well, it would be very easy to do that if they would communicate with us, if they would reach down into the folks that are here in the trenches doing the work every day."

The sheriff said the lawsuit against the state comes as no surprise.

"It really, at the end of the day, was nothing more than a a strong political statement that was rushed through for no other reason than to try and pander to the votes they hope they’ll get in November," said Thompson.

Thompson said he participated in a protest against the bill last week and said he supports immigrant families and the impact they make on Iowa's economy.

"I think it's the diversity of our communities that make Black Hawk County what it is today," Thompson said.

The federal Department of Justice threatened a lawsuit against the state of Iowa if Gov. Reynolds and Attorney General Brenna Bird did not denounce the new bill by Tuesday, which they didn't.

The DOJ is suing the state of Iowa.