Washington County releases more immigration detainer records

WASHINGTON — The Washington County Sheriff’s Office has released 70 pages of immigration detainer requests sent to its jail by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency dating back to the start of 2025, in response to a public records request from the Southeast Iowa Union.

The records offer details on 15 inmates Washington County was ordered to hold for up to 48 hours after they’d otherwise leave custody, in accordance with state law that demands local law enforcement comply with ICE requests. Those detained have a few things in common: all are men with citizenship in Central America, according to federal officials, and all have at least one traffic violation on their record. Over half have at least one OWI on their record.

All but four have been convicted of at least one misdemeanor. None of the 15 have ever been convicted of a felony in the state of Iowa.

The finding contrasts with federal officials’ claims that ICE detainers are typically reserved for individuals “after a court has convicted them of one or more crimes — and typically when the alien poses a public safety or national security threat.” Many prominent Republicans have praised the agency under President Donald Trump’s push to ramp up deportation efforts, claiming newfound funding and aggressive tactics have made communities safer.

“These measures ensure law enforcement officers have the tools they need to protect American citizens from foreign criminals and terrorists,” Sen. Chuck Grassley said in a statement last month, defending a funding bill that made U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement the highest-funded federal law enforcement agency, with a total $170 billion at its disposal. “I applaud ICE for its tireless work to defend our nation.”

But the agency’s increasingly aggressive tactics under the new administration have taken sharp criticism from plenty of others.

Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice, an advocacy group and immigrant legal service, argued ICE’s actions represented a legal and ethical overstep, playing out across the state and the nation.

“ICE’s presence and tactics do not make Iowans or our communities safer, and in fact it never has,” IMMJ Communications Specialist Elena Casillas-Hoffman said in a statement to The Union. “All Iowans, regardless of if their family has just arrived or if they have been here for generations, deserve the opportunity to live in peace and safety. We all belong, and we will continue to defend and protect each other.”

In Washington County this year, only one of the men named in an immigration detainer is accused of a felony by the state: Maicol Leonel Godoy-Moncada was charged in June with willful injury, attempted murder, and going armed with intent after police said he stabbed another Washington resident with a kitchen knife at least two times.

Godoy-Moncada is also charged with assault while displaying a dangerous weapon over the incident, which is an aggravated misdemeanor under Iowa Code. The case has not yet gone to trial.

Another inmate, Rogelio Perez Sanchez, was accused of felony drug offenses in 2002, but they were later dismissed. None of the other inmates named has ever been accused of a felony in Iowa, based on records available in Iowa Courts Online.

About half of the inmates named in the ICE detainers have been convicted at some point of Operating While Intoxicated, but none have done so enough times to leap from a misdemeanor to a felony charge. Every detainee named by the federal agency has at least one traffic infraction on their record, many for driving without a valid license or without proof of insurance while others were cited for open container violations and speeding. A handful were ticketed for those infractions within a month of their respective detainer order.

It’s not clear exactly what lands someone on the federal agency’s radar, or how its agents are notified about local arrests in the first place. In a resource guide published in July, Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice said Immigration and Customs Enforcement likely shared data with other law enforcement agencies.

“Evidence shows there are various ways ICE and other agencies share information. This includes informal communications, sharing of government databases, and more formal federal partnerships,” IMMJ wrote. “We know that the Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) submits info to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to verify customers’ lawful status when they apply for a driver’s license or identification card. However, we do not know the extent to which ICE has connections to other databases in Iowa.”

Redactions complicate verification efforts

Although The Southeast Iowa Union reviewed 70 pages of detainer requests sent to the Washington County Jail, local officials redacted most inmates’ dates of birth, making it hard to confirm with certainty that they were the same individuals named in dockets found via Iowa Courts Online, a database of virtually all court records in the Hawkeye State.

Washington County shared the detainer letters it received in response to a public records request which invoked Iowa Code Chapter 22, the state’s public records law. The federal Department of Homeland Security denied a similar request for the same records last month, which instead cited the Freedom of Information Act, a federal statute compelling executive-branch agencies to share certain information with the public.

In a letter to the paper dated Aug. 21, DHS claimed the communications in question were, “records of a personal nature,” which can normally only be accessed by the individuals they mention. The department’s public liaison for FOIA requests has not answered an email requesting clarifications, sent on Aug. 28. The Union has not yet filed an administrative appeal in the case, but has until mid-November to do so under federal deadline requirements.

The Southeast Iowa Union was also unable to verify the immigration status of the 15 people named in detainers sent to the Washington County Jail this year. Nor could it find 14 of them in ICE’s detainee locator system, a database that typically requires the birth dates of individuals, which Washington County mostly redacted.

The family of Noel Lopez — a Washington County inmate who was recently turned over to ICE after prosecutors dropped drug-related misdemeanor charges against him — provided additional identifying materials that helped locate him through the federal agency’s detainee database. According to that tool, Lopez is currently held at the Linn County Jail.

In its official communications to the local government, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said 13 of the detainees in Washington County were believed to reside in the U.S. illegally based on, “statements made by the individual to an immigration officer and/or other reliable evidence.” For two others, ICE asserted probable cause based on biometric data, or “pendency of ongoing removal proceedings.” The paperwork did not offer specific details on what statements or biometric data it referenced.

The Union was also unable to verify whether any of the 15 people sought by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Washington County had criminal records in states other than Iowa. Every state and territory maintains its own criminal record data, with most providing documents through paid subscriptions like Iowa Courts Online, while others have no online database at all. At least one Washington County inmate named by ICE was previously convicted of an OWI in Minnesota, which was mentioned in passing in one of his Iowa court dockets. The offense is a misdemeanor in both states.

County doesn’t charge ICE for detainees

While Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer orders aren’t legally binding in their own right, Iowa Code Chapter 27A directs local governments to comply with them or face a cutoff of all state tax dollars.

The detainers direct county officials to hold inmates for up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released. Washington County does not bill ICE for that time, according to Sheriff Jared Schneider, who said the local government rarely sends other law enforcement agencies fees for detainer requests.

“We typically do not charge for housing inmates who are being held on a detainer,” he wrote in an email. “This applies to detainers from other counties, states, or most federal agencies. The exception is U.S. Marshal’s detainers, which apply when an individual is arrested locally on a U.S. Marshal’s warrant.”

The exact cost to the county is difficult to calculate.

Schneider said Washington County-sentenced inmates were typically charged $35 per day in the jail. Contract inmates from other counties are charged at $60 per day, while the U.S. Marshal’s contract rate is $67 per day.

The actual cost to the county, however, varies from one inmate and day to the next, according to Schneider.

“Determining the true per-day cost of housing an inmate is complex, as it includes expenses such as food, utilities, laundry, medical care, personnel, administrative, and maintenance,” he wrote. “A single inmate with unusually high medical costs can cause a noticeable spike when averaging per-day costs across the population. Food costs, for example, vary depending on the number of meals ordered and currently range from $11.721 to $3.270 per meal.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com