Trump administration moves to dismiss lawsuits against Iowa, Oklahoma over immigration laws

Trump administration dismisses lawsuits against Iowa and Oklahoma challenging their immigration laws, sparking legal battles and political controversy.

The Trump administration on Friday (March 14, 2025) 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 US. 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.

Editorial: On Donald Trump’s mass deportation drive 

“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 (March 14, 2025).