Despite the Supreme Court temporarily preventing a similar law in Texas from taking effect, legislators in the Iowa Senate have moved to make undocumented migration to America a state crime.

The bill in question would make coming to America after being denied admission an aggravated misdemeanor. The bill also would make returning to America after being deported a misdemeanor. 

The bill also has a provision to upgrade the charges to a felony if a person was deported because of a conviction involving drugs, crimes against another person, terrorist removal procedures, or another felony.

The bill would also allow judges to issue an order to remove someone from America. Republicans backing the bill cited Interstate 35 as one reason the state needed such a law, despite Iowa not bordering any other country. 

“I-35 provides a direct route from the border to Iowa,” state Senator Jeff Reichmann said during the Senate debate. “In 2023 alone, the Iowa Department of Public Safety Division of Narcotics Enforcement has seized more than 83,000 fentanyl tablets, more than 1,000 pounds of methamphetamine and 165 pounds of cocaine.”

State Democrats dismissed the bill as a messaging opportunity for Republicans and pointed out that the bill doesn’t include necessary provisions to enforce the new law, like transportation for deportations.

“This bill is a political stunt and a false promise that doesn’t contain the needed resources,” state senator Janice Weiner told JustThe News. “It’s a gotcha bill.”

The Iowa proposal comes shortly after the Supreme Court temporarily prevented a similar Texas law from taking effect while the Court considers a challenge to the law.

The Texas Law would have allowed police in the state to arrest migrants who cross the border between ports of entry and imposed criminal penalties on them.