ICE detains man after Washington County drops charges

WASHINGTON — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has detained a Southeast Iowa man three days after Washington County dropped drug charges against him.

Court records say Muscatine man Noel Lopez was riding in the passenger seat of a car stopped in June of 2024 on Highway 218, where a Washington County deputy reported finding “loose, green, plant material” that a state forensic lab later confirmed to be marijuana, as well as a vape cartridge containing a “preparation of cannabis.”

Neither Lopez nor the driver — a man named Mason Pounsavan — were arrested until July of this year, when both were charged with a first offense of drug possession and for hemp inhalation. Both charges are serious misdemeanors.

  Buy Photo

While jailed in Washington County, family members say U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued a detainer request, directing local authorities to hold Lopez for up to 48 additional hours after he would otherwise be released from the county’s custody.

On Aug. 13, the state filed a motion to dismiss its charge against the 23-year-old, “pursuant to plea negotiations.” Prosecutors said in their motion that Lopez had agreed to pay for “costs of the dismissal,” but did not say whether the deal came with any other stipulations.

On Aug. 15, District Associate Judge Daniel Kitchen signed paperwork for Lopez’s release from county custody. The following day, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office issued an update saying Lopez was transferred to another unspecified facility. Family members told The Union he was now in ICE custody, and expected the federal agency to move him to the Linn County Jail later that day.

While Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer orders aren’t legally binding in their own right, Iowa Code directs local governments to comply with them or face a cutoff of state tax dollars.

A record of the warrant served to Lopez said he was transferred to the Washington County Jail in July from Muscatine County’s jail. There’s no record of Lopez being charged with any crime in Muscatine County, but family members said police received an “anonymous report” claiming Lopez was residing in the U.S. illegally while staying at his fiancee’s home.

Family members worry about deportation

Lopez, according to family members, has lived in the U.S. since he was two-and-a-half years old, and has virtually no ties in Mexico, where he was born.

That raises the stakes of any potential deportation proceedings.

“Noel is the heart of our family. He’s a high school graduate, a hard worker, and someone who always puts others first,” wrote Leslie Lopez, Noel’s sister, on a GoFundMe page seeking coverage for his legal fees. “If he’s deported, he’ll be separated from everyone he loves and everything he’s built here.”

Bri Thornton, Lopez’s fiancee, said the family had hired an immigration lawyer and hoped to keep Lopez stateside after an anticipated legal battle. She declined to comment on her fiance’s immigration status until after she could consult with his attorney.

In the meantime, she said Lopez’s relatives were anxious, expecting federal officials to push for his deportation. They were initially told by an attorney that Lopez would be transferred to Muscatine on Thursday before entering ICE’s custody.

“Everything happened so fast, we didn’t expect that,” Thornton said in an interview Aug. 14. “He was supposed to have two more hearings, so he called me this morning and told me [about the charges being dropped.] It’s been a lot in one day, I’m not really sure what’s going to happen next.”

ICE’s rationale unclear

It’s not clear from available records what prompted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to issue a detainer for Lopez.

On one FAQ page, Immigration and Customs Enforcement says it “lodges immigration detainers after officers or agents establish probable cause to believe that an alien is removable — typically after a court has convicted them of one or more crimes — and typically when the alien poses a public safety or national security threat.”

But state and federal court databases show no record of criminal history for Lopez, or for any accusations of crimes aside from the now-dropped misdemeanor charges. Family members describe the man as someone who works long hours for a landscaping business, enjoys soccer and does more than his share of the dishes.

Elsewhere on its government website, the agency says detainment by ICE is “nonpunitive,” and used with suspected unauthorized immigrants to, “secure their presence for immigration proceedings or removal from the United States.”

  Buy Photo

The Executive Office for Immigration Review returned zero results for cases related to Lopez based on a search of his A-Number, an identification code assigned by the federal Department of Homeland Security to noncitizens in the U.S. The same identifier returned nothing from ICE’s database of immigration court proceedings, and The Union could find no documents mentioning him in PACER, a government-run database of most federal court proceedings in the U.S.

In response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed Aug. 11, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told The Southeast Iowa Union it would take up to 30 days to provide copies of the agency’s correspondences with the Washington County Jail, which the newspaper requested dating back to Jan. 1 of 2025. In the same message, the federal agency denied a request from the outlet for expedited treatment, which is sometimes granted to journalists.

“Due to the increasing number of FOIA requests received by this office, we may encounter some delay in processing your request,” the agency wrote in an email. “As your request seeks numerous documents that will necessitate a thorough and wide-ranging search, ICE will invoke a 10-day extension for your request.”

Federal agencies must typically meet a 20-day deadline to fulfill FOIA requests. In an update Monday morning, ICE said it had referred the request to an official at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, another DHS agency that handles immigration matters.

The Union filed two public records requests Wednesday afternoon with the Washington County Jail — one seeking copies of any communications ICE sent to the jail, and another seeking copies of any communication from the jail back to ICE — citing a clause of state code that requires public disclosure for certain communications related to local government business.

While earlier versions of the requests were denied, County Attorney Nathan Repp said in an email late Friday afternoon that the requested correspondences could be provided, but cautioned that, “It may take some time to go through the records to ensure that all requested communications are being provided, so there may be some associated costs.”

Sheriff Jared Schneider did not immediately return a request from The Union for a cost estimate, which was sent after business hours on Friday.

Federal government claims, despite contradicting data, that detainees are mostly criminals

Increasingly common and visible arrests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have proven polarizing since President Donald Trump took office.

A recent major funding package passed by the Republican-controlled Congress — informally known as the “Big Beautiful Bill” — raised ICE’s budget by $75 billion, according to CBS, making it the highest-funded federal law enforcement agency with a total $170 billion at its disposal.

Republican officials have touted growing deportation and detention efforts this year as a win, claiming the agency’s uptick in enforcement has reduced crimes and made the nation safer. They cite numerous examples; In an emailed newsletter on Thursday, Sen. Chuck Grassley applauded 572 specific deportations of people convicted of kidnappings, sexual assaults, murder and indecent exposure, among other crimes.

The lawmaker said the agency was running more effectively thanks to its monetary windfall which he called, “the largest border and immigration investment package in modern history.”

“These measures ensure law enforcement officers have the tools they need to protect American citizens from foreign criminals and terrorists,” Grassley said in a statement. “I applaud ICE for its tireless work to defend our nation.”

  Buy Photo

In an April press release, Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it had removed 66,463 unauthorized immigrants during Trump’s first 100 days in office, of whom it claimed 65,682 were “criminal aliens.” The agency said it, “focused on the ‘worst first,’ removing the most dangerous criminal aliens from our communities to protect our families, friends and neighbors.”

Federal data paints a starkly different picture.

According to one government-made data set updated Aug. 11, ICE has placed a total of 46,113 people in detainment so far this federal fiscal year, which started Oct. 1, 2024 and ends Sept. 30., 2025.

Of those, less than 30% were convicted criminals. Another 25% had “pending criminal charges” when they entered ICE’s custody, while the plurality — 45.38% — are labeled “other immigration violators.” Contrary to the agency’s assertions about detainers being reserved mostly for dangerous criminals, ICE’s data classifies over half of this fiscal year’s detainees — 26,667 people — as “low” security risks based on their prior convictions, special vulnerabilities and “special management concerns.”

The finding, already widely reported in national news outlets, has drawn criticism from activists who claim federal officials have circumvented the legal process to remove people living in the U.S. legally and peacefully.

“The false charge against Noel Lopez has been dropped — because it was a lie,” wrote Iowa immigrant advocacy group Escucha Mi Voz on Facebook Thursday morning. “But ICE [is] still trying to deport him. Right now, Noel is being transferred … a direct result of this false arrest. Here's how the deportation machine works: false charges, jail transfers, and ICE arrests to separate families.”

A small group sat outside of the Washington County Jail with signs on Thursday, protesting Lopez’s expected transfer into ICE custody.

“We want him to know that we’re around, and we want folks to know that it all seems suspiciously coordinated,” said protester Lynette Iles, a cofounder of the group Indivisible Washington County, a local chapter for a larger anti-Trump organization. “Our county is being quiet, being complicit. We’re angry.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com