Immigration Advocates Kill a Terrible Republican Anti-Immigrant Bill

And Iowa CCI and Iowans are the real winners in ethics investigation...

It was a packed hearing on Tuesday when immigration advocates dogged the Republicans in the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee about a bill that was redundant with federal law and that would criminalize people who assist immigrants.

Ty Rushing has the story at the Iowa Starting Line:

HF 2608 would require the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to verify the citizenship status of anyone who applies for public assistance, something the agency already does. 

The bill would also create a new broad “smuggling” law—inspired by a similar Texas law that is currently tied up in the courts—that comes with felony-level charges for those found guilty of breaking it. 

“This bill would make it a felony for myself or faith-based migrant service providers to shelter, transport, and assist undocumented migrant workers,” said Emily Sinnwell, a nurse practitioner who runs the Iowa City Catholic Worker nonprofit that provides immigrant and refugee services.

Sinnwell is in the center of the TV screen in the photo above. I was a little late to the hearing, but as far as I know, no one spoke in favor of the bill, and maybe 20-30 eloquently spoke against it.

They called the bill redundant with existing law and shared the harm the law would do to their families and our communities. At least one attorney reminded our legislators that undocumented people have rights under Iowa law. Several shared that their faith guided them to assist others. Under the terms of the bill, helpers would be criminalized for transporting people to and from appointments to doctors, immigration authorities, or the grocery store. Some stressed how fearful people would become, and the instability it would lead to in our communities.

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I don’t know the young woman in the center above, but I wish I did. Look at the expression of everyone behind her as they listen to her story of the unnecessary harm the bill would do to her and those she cares about.

The perpetually befuddled Senator Julian Garrett (R) from Warren County and Jeff Taylor (R) from Sioux Center couldn’t care less, voting to move the bill forward. They don’t care about the harm that would come to individuals, or the resulting instability in communities, schools, and other institutions because instilling fear and instability is at the heart of the MAGA movement. Here is the taped response by all senators to the public comments.

The Republican Senators used the tactic of admitting there were “problems” with the bill in an attempt to appease the crowd, but that they wanted to “continue the conversation” by moving the bill forward. The technical term for such behavior is called “covering your ass,” but it didn’t work.

Senator Janice Weiner (D) from Iowa City objected to the bill simply because it’s a bad bill, but also in part because it’s against the teachings of her Jewish faith. She suggested that if the bill were to be passed, those interested could challenge it in court under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act that’s still under consideration in the statehouse. Democrats, including Weiner, objected to the measure saying it could be used to discriminate against LGBTQ+ Iowans and other marginalized groups.

I suspect Weiner didn’t mention the Religious Freedom and Restoration Act because it’s good legislation; she mentioned it instead because it could be useful in this situation, even where it could be used to wrongly discriminate in others.

Taylor agreed with Weiner on this point, noting that it was Republicans who supported the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, apparently not recognizing that Weiner was suggesting people use bad Republican-sponsored legislation to undermine other bad Republican-sponsored legislation.

The Republicans were criticized by one young man who had to take off work to come to the hearing. He said:

If your worry is about public safety then I think there are other ways to go about it rather than promote white supremacy. It’s just discrimination against people who have been displaced by the very same powers of capitalists and imperialists that have funded your campaigns.

In his closing remarks, Taylor addressed the man’s statement:

I’m pretty sure I'm not receiving any imperialistic money as a candidate in my past campaign. I'm actually very anti-imperialistic and since we're state legislators rather than national legislators it probably doesn't apply. Even the idea that capitalists are behind this crackdown on immigrants…there's irony there because the US Chamber of Commerce, at the national level has tried to stop the effort to close the southern border because they benefit from cheap labor, right? So there's an exploitation element sometimes with those in the business community as well, as you know, a lot of businesses that aren't so big around the state of Iowa just in need of workers. So the business community doesn't necessarily want something like this, I would point out.

Taylor’s remarks are revealing. First, he doesn’t understand how imperialism and capitalism work as historical processes to reinforce white supremacy. Second, and more importantly, if there are economic reasons to support immigrants coming into our country, why aren’t we helping undocumented workers here become documented, instead of attempting to criminalize those who assist them, as this legislation was attempting to do?

The answer is racism in service of politics. Republicans are manufacturing enemies in minority and marginalized groups to frighten their base, even if it comes at great economic and human cost.

A secondary reason is to punish the minority communities with the hope they and those who help them will quit (Gerald Ott shares a valuable perspective on this at Bleeding Heartland).

Thankfully, the people addressing the Senate sub-committee will never quit. And they won. For now.

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I spoke with a young woman who was visiting the Capitol and asked her what she thought about what was going on. She said:

I’m disgusted. All of these people in their nice clothes, with their Teslas in the parking lot, in this grand building, who are doing nothing for the people they are supposed to serve, some of who live just blocks away…

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The Iowa House Ethics Committee unanimously rejected a complaint against Republican House member Dean Fisher from Montour. The Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement filed the complaint, saying that Fisher campaigned on taxpayer dollars to fund private schools with no accountability, voted for that funding, and now seeks to profit from those dollars by building a private school in the Toledo/Tama area of his district.

Friends who know much more about the operations of the legislature than I do tell me that these complaints go nowhere in the legislature because there are so many conflicts of interest. For example, farmers could never vote on farm-related legislation, nor teachers for education-related legislation.

I understand. However, because of the Iowa CCI filing, Fisher’s constituents now know that he has his hand in the state government's pocket in a serious way and if public schools in his area suffer or close because of it, they will know who to blame (they might also want to watch whether or not Fisher buys a shiny new car or pickup or builds a new addition on his house). I wrote about the complaint here.

Importantly, Barb Kalbach, board president of Iowa CCI placed an editorial in the Tama-Toledo News Chronicle titled, Why We Filed our Ethics Complaint Against Rep. Dean Fisher. I’m sure it’s the talk of the district.

Fisher issued a statement after the decision of the Ethics Committee:

This complaint was clearly just a politically-motivated attempt to smear me…it’s wrong to attempt to use the mechanisms of government to attack someone you simply disagree with on policy.

Poor baby.

Dean—it’s more than the policy—you got caught with your hand in the cookie jar and you know it. And your support of vouchers means public schools in your district and across the state are going to be hurt, and when it happens, your constituents will know it.

Many thanks to Iowa CCI for bringing these shenanigans to light.

While the legislative ethics committee failed, this was a major victory for Iowa CCI and Iowans. Thanks also to whoever at the Tama-Toledo News Chronicle decided to run the editorial. I’ve been in small-town media long enough to know you probably got your ass chewed. Thanks for your courage.

And Dean? I also understand your colleagues think you are lazy.

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Coincidentally, while I was at the Capitol on Tuesday, I saw Tommy Hexter, a rural organizer and educator with the Iowa Farmers Union. When I asked him what he was doing there, he told me that he was filing to run as a Democrat against Representative Fisher in District 53. Read more about Tommy here. How about that? What timing!

Tommy is a policy wonk and a good man. If elected, he will serve the people of District 53 and Iowa well. In my opinion, we need more people like Tommy in the legislature who are more interested in serving Iowans than in their own self-interests. In other words?

Public servants. Someone the young woman I spoke with would be proud of rather than disgusted by.

Since I posted this column this morning, I’ve learned that two other Democrats, John Anderson of Tama and Jennifer Wrage of Gladbrook will join Tommy Hexter on the June 4 ballot. My apologies. I think it’s wonderful that three Democrats are interested in defeating Fisher, and I would like to thank them for putting in the work to tell people in the district how bad the policies of Republicans are for the people of their district and Iowa. The more candidates telling the story, the more powerful the campaign.

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Please join my colleague, Julie Gammack, columnist of Julie Gammack’s Potluck and J. Dudley’s World, and me as we talk to author Austin Frerick about his new book, Barons, Money, Power, and the Corruption of America’s Food Industry.

Here is the link for our conversation with author Austin Frerick on Monday, March 18 at noon: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81022096611

From the press kit:

“In this eye-opening debut study, Frerick, an agricultural policy fellow at Yale University, reveals the ill-gained stranglehold that a handful of companies have on America’s food economy…It’s a disquieting critique of private monopolization of public necessities.”

—Publishers Weekly, starred review

Austin Frerick's expertise is in agriculture and antitrust policy. He is a seventh-generation Iowan and first-generation college graduate with degrees from Grinnell College and the University of Wisconsin.

Austin will be on an Iowa CCI-sponsored book tour across the state. Learn more here.

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