DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Trump administration on Friday moved to dismiss lawsuits against Iowa and Oklahoma brought by the Biden administration’s Department of Justice, which challenged the states' immigration laws making it a crime for someone to be in the state if they are in the U.S. illegally.
Republican governors and lawmakers across the country had accused then-President Joe Biden of failing to enforce federal immigration law and manage the southern border.
In response, Iowa and Oklahoma enacted similar laws that let state and local officials arrest and charge people who have outstanding deportation orders or who previously were removed from or denied admission to the U.S. Both laws followed one enacted in Texas.
The Biden administration sued Texas, Iowa and Oklahoma over the respective laws. Texas' more expansive law was in effect for only a few confusing hours last March before a federal appeals court put it on hold.
The Iowa and Oklahoma laws have themselves been on hold while courts consider whether they unconstitutionally usurp federal immigration authority.
“The Biden administration's absurd opposition to (Oklahoma's law) was particularly frustrating since it was the White House's gross negligence on border security that had made the state law so necessary in the first place,” Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond said in a statement on Friday.
Trump ran for office on a pledge to crack down on illegal immigration and deport many who are living in the U.S. illegally, promises he acted on with executive orders during his first week in office that conflicted with the prior administration's legal position in the two cases.
Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird described the Trump administration's move to dismiss a “major victory” for Iowans.
"Today, President Trump, again, proved that he has Iowa’s back and showcased his commitment to Making America Safe Again by dropping Biden’s ridiculous lawsuit,” Bird said in a statement.
An immigrant rights group also sued Iowa last May over its law, but the 8th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals recently issued a decision that complicates the legal battle now that the Trump administration has withdrawn the federal government’s complaint.
The appellate court said the lawsuit filed by Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice should be dismissed by the district court judge, arguing the U.S. v. Iowa lawsuit made it moot. Rita Bettis Austin, the legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, said in a statement Friday they intended to continue fighting to keep Iowa's law from taking effect.
“With today's DOJ filing, we remain steadfast in our commitment to working to keep this harmful law from being enforced in Iowa,” Austin said.
Lawyers representing Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice in February filed a petition for rehearing with the appellate court.
Associated Press reporter Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City contributed.
President Donald Trump arrives at the annual St. Patrick's Day luncheon at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, March 12, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
FILE - People listen to a speaker during an Iowa Movement for Migrant Justice rally and march, Wednesday, May 1, 2024, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — A video released Friday shows the moment federal immigration agents arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate student whose detention alarmed free-speech advocates.
The clip begins with at least three agents confronting Khalil in the lobby of his apartment building near the Columbia campus Saturday night. The agents inform him that he is “going to be under arrest," then order him to “turn around” and “stop resisting.”
“There’s no need for this,” Khalil replies calmly as they place him in handcuffs. “I’m going with you. No worries.”
As his wife, Noor Abdalla, cries out in protest, asking in Arabic: “My love, how can I call you?” Khalil assures her that he will be fine and instructs her to call his lawyer.
Abdalla, an American citizen who is eight months pregnant, then asks the agents to identify themselves. “We don’t give our names,” one replies.
The video was released by Khalil’s attorneys the same day the Justice Department announced it was investigating whether the university concealed “illegal aliens” on its campus.
Khalil is a lawful U.S. resident with no criminal history. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he revoked Khalil's permission to be in the U.S. because of his role in pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia, saying they had riled up “anti-Jewish” sentiment and amounted to support for Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza and attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has warned that the attempted deportation will be the “first of many” of people who joined protests against Israel’s military action in Gaza
Federal officials announced Friday that they had arrested another woman tied to protests outside Columbia University and revoked the visa of a Columbia University doctoral student, who then left the country.
Khalil's wife, Abdalla, described his arrest as “the most terrifying moment of my life” in a statement accompanying the video. She said the arrest happened as the couple were returning home from an Iftar celebration.
“They threatened to take me too," she said.
The arrests have triggered fear among international students at Columbia and been condemned by free speech groups, which accuse the Trump administration of seeking to criminalize political dissent.
Khalil’s lawyers have challenged his detention in court.
In court documents, they described how he was rushed from New York to Louisiana last weekend after his arrest.
The experience reminded Khalil of when he left Syria, where he was born, shortly after the forced disappearance of his friends there during a period of arbitrary detention in 2013, the lawyers wrote.
According to the lawsuit, federal agents denied Khalil's request to speak to a lawyer. When he was taken to a federal office building in lower Manhattan, Khalil saw an agent approach another agent and say, “the White House is requesting an update,” the lawyers wrote.
At some point early Sunday, Khalil was taken, handcuffed and shackled, to a detention center in Elizabeth, New Jersey, where he spent the night in a cold waiting room. His request for a blanket was denied, the lawsuit said.
Then he was sent back to New York by van.
At 2:45 p.m. Sunday, he was put on an American Airlines flight from to Dallas, where he was placed on a second flight to Alexandria, Louisiana, arriving at 1 a.m. Monday.
Khalil is now being held in an isolated, low-slung ICE detention complex ringed by two rows of tall, barbed wire fences and surrounded by the endless pine forests. The complex, with a capacity of 1,160, is outside the small town of Jena, roughly 150 miles (240 kilometers) north of Baton Rouge.
He now worries about his pregnant wife and is “also very concerned about missing the birth of his first child,” the lawsuit said.
In April, Khalil was to begin a job and receive health benefits that the couple was counting on, it added.
“It is very important to Mr. Khalil to be able to continue his protected political speech, advocating and protesting for the rights of Palestinians — both domestically and abroad,” the lawsuit said.
FILE - Student negotiator Mahmoud Khalil is on the Columbia University campus in New York at a pro-Palestinian protest encampment on April 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, file)
