UPDATES & ANALYSIS

Iowa AG plans to seek U.S. Supreme Court review of injunction blocking enforcement of state’s immigration law

by Rox Laird | February 13, 2026

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird has informed the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit that the State of Iowa will be seeking review by the U.S. Supreme Court of the Eight Circuit’s October 2025 ruling affirming the district court’s preliminary injunction barring enforcement of Iowa’s statute that makes it a state crime for a noncitizen previously deported to reenter the state.

Bird filed a motion with the Eighth Circuit Feb. 6 asking it to stay issuance of a mandate finalizing its October decision by a three-judge panel affirming the U.S. District Court’s temporary injunction against enforcement of Iowa’s immigration statute. A stay would postpone proceedings in the district court on remand while the State pursues its petition for certiorari before the U.S. Supreme Court. Bird told the appeals court the application to the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to be briefed this summer.

In the meantime, Bird told the appeals court, while the Supreme Court considers the State’s petition, a stay would not prejudice the plaintiffs in this case because Iowa’s enforcement of its illegal reentry law will remain enjoined. And, she said, the plaintiffs do not oppose the State’s motion.

Bird’s motion for a stay comes in response to the Eight Circuit’s Feb. 4 denial of the State’s petition for rehearing before the full Eighth Circuit. The appeals court’s order was not signed, but two members of the court–Judge David Stras joined in part by Judge James Loken–dissented from the denial.

The Iowa statute, Senate File 2340, enacted in 2024, makes it an aggravated misdemeanor punishable by up to two years in prison for a person who was previously deported or removed from this country to be present within the state’s boundaries. State judges are required to order persons convicted of violating the statute to return to the nation from which they illegally entered the country.

In 2024, U.S. Department of Justice sued the state seeking to block enforcement of Iowa’s statute, which had been scheduled to go into effect that July. The Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice, an immigrant advocacy group, filed a similar action against the state and has continued to pursue the case.

After the Trump administration took office, the Department of Justice dropped its suit, and it filed an amicus curiae brief with the Eight Circuit supporting Iowa’s motion for rehearing by the full Eighth Circuit, arguing that the panel “misapplied preemption principles” and that Iowa’s law complements, rather than conflicts with, existing federal immigration law.

Bird made the same argument in her motion for rehearing en banc. The Attorney General argued that Iowa’s law does not conflict with federal law but complements it. “Thus, Iowa is not creating its own immigration policy—it is supporting federal immigration policy by reflecting federal law,” the Attorney General said.

The Eighth Circuit’s October 2025 panel decision affirming the district court’s preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of the statute was written by Judge William Benton and joined by Judge Jonathan Kobes and Senior Judge Morris Arnold.

In affirming the district court’s injunction, the Eighth Circuit held that Iowa’s statute likely conflicts with federal immigration law because it “empowers Iowa to contradict the policy decisions of Congress, and the policy decisions made with the discretion that Congress grants to federal immigration officials, frustrating U.S. law enforcement and foreign policy interests.”

The court of appeals, however, directed the district court on remand to narrow the scope of its preliminary injunction to address whether it was a “universal injunction” or only relief to the plaintiffs and to decide whether an immigration organization has standing as a plaintiff to sue for injuries to itself.

Tags: Eighth Circuit, US Supreme Court, Iowa AG Brenna Bird