(Radio Iowa) – A federal judge has temporarily blocked enforcement of Iowa’s immigration law to make illegal reentry a state crime. The law is designed to give state officials authority to arrest and deport immigrants who’d previously been deported or denied legal entry into the U.S. It was scheduled to go into effect July 1st.

In his ruling, U-S District Court Judge Stephen Locher said as a matter of politics, the new legislation might be defensible, but he said as a matter of constitutional law, it is not. Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird will appeal the ruling. Governor Kim Reynolds says President Biden is failing to enforce federal immigration law and the state law she signed is designed to protect Iowans from the border crisis.

Last month the U.S. Department of Justice and Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice filed lawsuits seeking to block the law from being enforced. An attorney from the American Immigration Council says the Iowa law is blatantly unconstitutional and could have led to prosecution of some immigrants who’d previously been deported, but now have current legal status to live in the U-S.