Barb Arland-Fye

Hours after a July 6 prayer vigil that Bishop Dennis G. Walsh of Davenport, Iowa, led for immigrant construction worker Pascual Pedro Pedro, Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities deported the 20-year-old West Liberty, Iowa, parishioner to Guatemala, his homeland.

Separate lawsuits filed by the U.S. Justice Department and civil rights groups claim that the state of Iowa’s new immigration law, which creates a state crime for unlawful reentry, violates federal law and the U.S. Constitution.

As many as 1,000 people participated in prayer vigils and rallies in four Iowa cities May 1 in support of human dignity and to call for the repeal of a new state law on illegal migration that opponents say is punitive.