In the race for Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District seat, Republican Joe Mitchell and Democrat Lindsay James have both pledged to maintain secure American borders.
That promise helped Republicans secure control in Washington, D.C., in 2024 after the country saw high levels of attempted border crossings under President Joe Biden. Two years later, some voters in the district are weary of immigration crackdowns, and the issue could shape the outcome one of the nation’s most competitive midterm congressional races.
Alongside the major party candidates, Libertarian Rick Stewart and independent Dave Bushaw are running to represent the district.
Biden-administration policies linger in midterm race debates
Mitchell, a housing developer from Clear Lake, uses the immigration issue to cast his opponent James, a state lawmaker from Dubuque, as a “radical left liberal.”
“She's somebody that missed over half her votes in the Legislature, and when she was there, she was voting to give illegal immigrants housing benefits, state Medicaid and food stamps,” he said at a Sept. 12 Republican fundraiser in Iowa City.
Mitchell appears to reference a law signed by Gov. Kim Reynolds in June (SF 2422) that revokes food assistance eligibility from some immigrant groups. James was absent from both House votes on the legislation. Fox News reported she missed 177 of 342, or 51.7%, of votes in the 2026 legislative session.
In her campaign, James has distanced herself from her party’s approach to immigration.
“The Biden administration didn't have strong enough policies when it came to securing the border,” she said at an Oct. 1 debate on Iowa’s News Now. “I am someone who has departed from my political party on several different occasions because I have courage of conviction.”
Nevertheless, Mitchell has attempted to tie his opponent to Biden-era immigration policy.
“You had tens of millions of illegal immigrants pouring over the border,” he said at the debate. “Joe Biden did nothing about, and he had the ability to do something about it. He could have closed the border; he did not.”
Strong feelings across the political spectrum
Tough talk on immigration helped Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson secure her third term representing the region in 2024. Hinson now leaves the seat open as she runs for the Senate, and some voters say GOP immigration crackdowns are motivating their choices this November.
Elizabeth Duff-Popplewell, a presbyterian minister in Waterloo, said she works frequently with the city’s immigrant communities and has seen the destabilizing effect of Trump administration policies. The outcome has disturbed her. Polling from earlier this year indicated many Americans feel similarly.
“These are people that have left home, and they want to make a life for their families, and they've done what our government asked them to do, and now the government has changed the rules,” Duff-Popplewell said.
It’s a motivating issue for young voters as well. University of Northern Iowa senior Abigail Lindgren said her peers follow talk about politics often.
“My friends who are immigrants from outside of the country — they're terrified that their student visas are going to get taken away someday,” Lindgren said. “I cannot afford to just turn my eyes away from what's going on in this world, and neither can my friends.”
Lindgred, a political communication major, works with the nonpartisan group PanthersVote to register students, hoping to turn those concerns into ballot box participation.
But two years later, the memory of Biden-era immigration policy remains a motivating issue for President Donald Trump’s base. Vice Chair of the Tama County GOP Central Committee Moe McWhirter said Biden’s immigration policies “essentially destroyed this nation.”
McWhirter said it was clear for decades the nation needed a border wall.
“It wasn't until Trump came along that we finally got somebody off the dime to do it, and it works,” he said.
Meeting the region's workforce needs
A New York Times/Siena poll released in October found Iowans are more likely to name affordability or the general economy as a top issue, over immigration. But they are intertwined.
Many cities in the district — like Dubuque, Waterloo and Cedar Rapids — have meatpacking, manufacturing or construction industries. Changes to immigration policy could have an economic impact because those industries recruit immigrant workers.
Professor emeritus of economics at UNI Bryce Kanago said increasing the pipeline of foreign workers could help reduce “labor costs” and slow inflation.
“We might revise immigration laws in a way that makes them more beneficial to the United States and to potential immigrants, and that somehow allows for a better path for businesses that want to hire workers on a temporary basis,” he said.
James has voiced support for such reforms. In a debate on Oct. 1 she called on both parties to “create a meaningful pathway to citizenship.”
“We can address the worker crisis and the needs that we have right now,” she said.
Mitchell, who has called for a ban on H1-B visas, said the state can meet its own workforce needs.
“American jobs for should be for Americans,” he said, “Iowan jobs should be for Iowans.”
According to Mitchell, the proposed Mesabi Metallics steel plant in southeast Iowa is the type of project which will spur economic development, including in the 2nd District.
“John Deere, they're going to save costs because of that steel mill. Kinze Manufacturing, they came out with a big letter last week saying their business will be better because of that steel mill, and so jobs for Iowans is a good thing,” he said on IPR’s River to River.
Independent Dave Bushaw of Hawkeye rejected the idea that immigrant workers and Iowans are in competition.
“Working-class solidarity isn’t defined by a border,” Bushaw said at an Oct. 21 campaign stop in Waterloo.
A squash farmer and musician, Bushaw said he previously worked at Postville’s Agri-Star Meat and Poultry plant, often alongside immigrants and first-generation Americans. Bushaw called for reforms to protect all workers in the United States, regardless of origin.
“We need to look at fixing our immigration system here because a lot of these workers coming in on H1-B or H2-A visas are being exploited,” he said.
Excluding them from labor protections “drives down competitive wages and benefits for working-class Americans,” he added.
As voters critique both Biden and Trump-era immigration policies, those political memories could shape which candidate they choose this election – and what party secures control of Congress.
Early voting is underway ahead of the Nov. 3 election.
