Bill > HF2608

Introduced Session

This bill relates to qualifications for certain rights and privileges prescribed by this state, including state employment, professional licensure, voter registration, and bail. DIVISION I —— IMMIGRATION STATUS —— STATE EMPLOYMENT AND LICENSURE. The bill requires each head of a department or independent agency of this state, as well as the state board of regents and each regents institution, to use the e-verify system of the U.S. citizenship and immigration services to confirm the employment eligibility of newly hired employees. The bill creates within the department of inspections, appeals, and licensing a clearinghouse to process requests to verify, using the systematic alien verification for entitlements system of the U.S. department of homeland security and the U.S. citizenship and immigration services (SAVE program), the United States citizenship and immigration status of individuals who have applied for a professional license in this state. The bill requires professional licensing boards to use the SAVE program clearinghouse to verify the U.S. citizenship and immigration status of an individual who has applied for a professional license from the board and to decline to issue or renew a license if the licensing board is unable to verify that the person is lawfully present in the United States. The bill requires the denial of an application for a professional license due to the results of the SAVE program clearinghouse check to be appealed to the director of the department of inspections, appeals, and licensing, and the decision of the director shall constitute a final agency action. The bill also requires a licensing board established after January 1, 1978, to adopt rules for the revocation or suspension of a license that the licensing board deems to be a professional license if the licensee is unlawfully present in the United States, as determined by using the SAVE program clearinghouse. DIVISION II —— VOTER REGISTRATION —— UNAUTHORIZED ALIENS. The bill disqualifies persons who are unauthorized aliens, defined in the bill as persons who are unlawfully present in the United States under the federal Immigration and Nationality Act, from registering to vote and from voting. The bill requires a person submitting a voter registration form to swear an oath to protect and defend the constitutions of the United States and of Iowa, that the person is qualified to register to vote, and that the person has not submitted false information in the voter registration form. A person falsely swearing this oath is guilty of election misconduct in the first degree, a class “D” felony. A class “D” felony is punishable by confinement for no more than five years and a fine of at least $1,025 but not more than $10,245. The bill provides that an information or indictment for election misconduct in the first degree shall be found within five years after the commission of the offense. Under current law, an information or indictment for election misconduct in the first degree must be found within three years after its commission. DIVISION III —— PRETRIAL DETENTION. The bill provides that a charge for a forcible felony creates a rebuttable presumption that the person is dangerous and that there is not a sufficient surety or condition of release that will reasonably assure the personal safety of another person or persons. If a court determines that there is probable cause to believe that the defendant committed a forcible felony, then the defendant shall be detained without bail. The prosecuting attorney, or the court on its own motion, must move for pretrial detention. The defendant may rebut the presumption by demonstrating, by a preponderance of the evidence, that adequate conditions of release will reasonably assure the personal safety of another person or persons. The bill also provides that it shall be presumed that there are not sufficient sureties or conditions of release that will secure the appearance at trial of an unauthorized alien for an indictable offense. If a court determines that there is probable cause to believe that the defendant committed an indictable offense and the court further determines by a preponderance of the evidence that the defendant is an unauthorized alien, the prosecuting attorney, or the court on its own motion, shall move for pretrial detention. The defendant may rebut the presumption by demonstrating, by a preponderance of the evidence, that adequate conditions of release will secure the appearance of the defendant at trial.

AI Summary

No sponsors listed

Other Sponsors (1)

Introduced, placed on calendar. H.J. 345. (on 02/19/2026)

Official Document