Reynolds announced March 28 she would dispatch over 100 Iowa National Guardsmen to the U.S.-Mexico border to continue addressing the border crisis. The effort supports Texas’ Operation Lone Star, a joint operation between the Texas Public Safety Department and the U.S. military to counter mass illegal immigration.
Reynolds sent multiple officers to the border in 2021, making this new deployment the fourth time she sent troops out of state in support of this operation. To take things further, Reynolds signed a new law on April 10 to make illegal immigration a state crime.
Iowa law enforcement officers now have the power to arrest and charge people with an aggravated misdemeanor if they were denied proper admission into the United States and deported or removed from the country in any way.
Reynolds has publicly stated her intent behind this bill, citing how Biden has “refused” to deport undocumented immigrants.
“The Biden Administration has failed to enforce our nation’s immigration laws, putting the protection and safety of Iowans at risk,” said.
Reynolds is very misleading and flat-out incorrect on several of these issues. She obviously has not done her homework with so many logical errors in both her reasoning and continual actions.
President Joe Biden has deported many immigrants, in fact, even more than former President Donald Trump. Furthermore, the southern border should not be a pressing issue for Iowa, considering the 927-mile distance.
According to an article in the Washington Post, the Biden Administration has deported more than 142,000 immigrants in 2023. This is double the number from 2022, and 127,600 more than Trump’s deported immigrants in 2020. Although more immigrants have been crossing into America during Biden’s presidency than during Trump’s, it’s still clear Biden is putting in efforts to counter.
If anything, Biden is following in former President Barack Obama’s footsteps, who deported 3.2 million undocumented immigrants during his first term and 2.1 million during his second. Obama was even nicknamed the “Deporter-in-Chief” by immigration activists.
Both Obama and Biden have deported more immigrants than Donald Trump, meaning Biden is in fact cracking down on illegal immigration. Reynolds is incorrect in the assertion that Biden isn’t doing anything; he’s doing more than people give him credit for.
Regarding Reynold’s actions, the last thing Iowa should tackle right now is illegal immigration. Reynolds is not putting the needs of her home state first, she is putting Texas’ needs first. Her job as the governor of Iowa mandates taking responsibility for protecting the state but sending a hundred Iowa officers to another part of the country doesn’t help Iowa.
If anything, this decision only weakens Iowa, considering it wasn’t that long ago Iowa suffered a mass shooting in January. Iowa needs more police officers and more protection from gun violence than it does for border crisis in another state several thousands of miles away.
Reynolds should not be placing the needs of Texas ahead of Iowa, that is solely Texas’s responsibility alone. Illegal immigration will not affect Iowa, but a lack of officers will.
She claims she wants to protect the country, but that is not her job. Reynolds job is to protect and manage Iowa, and only Iowa. It is time for her to return to her duty.