Iowa
Entries whose effect landed somewhere in Iowa (IA) — a city, a county, a campus, a detention facility — whichever government acted. Federal conduct inside Iowa counts here.
This is not the same set as Iowa's jurisdiction page, which records the 13 entries where Iowa's own government was the acting authority, wherever those events happened. The two overlap and neither contains the other: place and power are separate facts, and statewide acts appear there and not here.
4 entries · 4 places
One square per place, sized equally, coloured by how many entries landed there. Ordered most-documented first: a grid of equal tiles has no reading order of its own.
Council Bluffs city 1 entry
ICE detained South Sudanese refugee Nyamuoch Duoth for months past her final removal order despite no country willing to take her
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement redetained Nyamuoch Thomas Duoth, a South Sudan-born lawful permanent resident, in March 2025 despite a 2022 finding that there was no significant likelihood the government could remove her to South Sudan or Ethiopia. Her removal order became final on December 26, 2025, and by June 26, 2026 — six months later, the point past which continued immigration detention is presumptively unlawful absent a significant likelihood of removal — ICE had provided no evidence of progress toward deporting her and continued to hold her at the Pottawattamie County Jail in Council Bluffs, Iowa. U.S. District Judge Stephen Locher later granted her habeas petition and ordered her immediate release on July 16, 2026, calling the government's justification for continued detention "hard to take seriously."
Des Moines city 1 entry
ICE staged sham bond hearing for Iowa detainee Suraj Vasal with 30 minutes' notice and no opportunity to secure counsel
On February 27, 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement gave Suraj Vasal, an Indian asylum-seeker detained at Polk County Jail in Des Moines, Iowa, approximately 30 minutes' notice before a court-ordered bond hearing conducted via Zoom, with no information about its purpose until the call began. Vasal asked for time to secure an attorney; immigration officials denied the request and used the hearing to deny him bond. U.S. District Judge Stephen Locher later ruled that ICE's conduct violated Vasal's due process rights, finding the government had staged a "sham" hearing to satisfy a court order while ensuring Vasal remained detained.
Muscatine city 1 entry
ICE re-detained Jorge Gonzalez Ochoa one minute before his court-ordered release, defying a federal judge's order
On December 23, 2025, at 9:59 a.m. — one minute before a federal court order required his release — ICE officers served the Muscatine County Jail with a new arrest warrant for Jorge Gonzalez Ochoa, a 28-year-old Colombian asylum seeker, circumventing a December 22 release order by U.S. District Judge Stephen H. Locher. ICE had not yet prepared the legally required Notice to Appear when it issued the arrest warrant, and Judge Locher later found the agency sent the notice by regular mail to obscure the sequence and "cover its tracks." Gonzalez Ochoa was not released until January 9, 2026 — seventeen days after the original release order.
Polk County Jail facility · in Des Moines 1 entry
ICE officer Travis Erdman defied federal court order protecting Iowa student-visa holder; judge found civil contempt
On June 30, 2026, U.S. District Judge Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger held ICE Deportation Officer Travis Erdman in civil contempt for knowingly defying a court order that blocked the transfer of Pardeep Saini, a 22-year-old student-visa holder, out of the district. Erdman transferred Saini to Nebraska on April 1, 2026, despite the order, and testified at the contempt hearing that he was aware of the violation and had sought guidance only from ICE's own legal office, which twice told him to keep Saini in Nebraska. Judge Ebinger ruled that Erdman had made "no effort, at any point, to bring his agency into compliance," calling the conduct "astonishing" and "exceedingly unacceptable."