A federal appeals court on Friday sided with the Biden administration's Department of Justice and kept a temporary block on an Iowa law that makes it a state crime for a person to be in Iowa if they are in the U.

A U.S. appeals court refused on Friday to allow Iowa to implement a law allowing for the arrest and prosecution of people who are in the United States illegally.

Without doubt, the remedy Congress and the President chose here is dramatic,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in a concurring opinion. “Whether this law will succeed in achieving its ends, I do not know.”

A lower court had blocked the Republican-backed law that made it a state crime to enter Iowa after being deported or denied entry to the United States.

Iowa can't enforce its own immigration law, U.S. appeals court says. But with Justice Department in new hands, future of statute unclear