Human Impact Project

Syed Abbas, an Indian national from New York, was detained by Iowa State Patrol and ICE officers on March 4, 2026, while traveling through Iowa as a commercial truck driver. Abbas had been granted work authorization in 2024 and had a pending asylum application at the time of his arrest. State troopers pulled over his vehicle after the driver failed to stop at a weigh station, checked Abbas's immigration status despite him not being the driver, and concluded he was in the U.S. without authorization, then transferred him to Polk County Jail. Abbas's attorney has filed a federal lawsuit against ICE, the Department of Homeland Security, and Polk County, arguing his due process rights were violated when he was deprived of liberty without notice, hearing, or individualized justification.

Abhishek Kumar, a native of India living in Richmond Hill, New York, who entered the United States in May 2022, was detained by Iowa State Patrol and ICE officers on February 11 while driving a commercial truck at a weigh station near Mitchellville as part of Operation ICE Wall, a joint state-federal enforcement operation targeting commercial truck drivers near Interstate 80. Kumar was taken to Polk County Jail, where he has been held without a bond hearing or opportunity to argue for his release. Two other drivers, Suraj Vasal and Jagdish Singh, were stopped and detained by ICE at the same location on the same day and have also filed suit against the federal government. Kumar is suing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice, alleging violations of his due process rights and seeking either his release or a bond hearing in immigration court.

Jorge Elieser Gonzalez Ochoa, a 27-year-old Colombian national seeking asylum, was arrested by plainclothes ICE agents at Bread Garden Market in Iowa City on September 25, 2025, while working and wearing a court-ordered GPS monitor. Agents charged him with document fraud and misuse of immigration documents. A federal judge ruled the DHS actions "indefensible" and found Gonzalez Ochoa was illegally detained, noting agents attempted to circumvent a court order and violated procedural requirements. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to time served plus one day. After several months in federal immigration detention, Gonzalez Ochoa was released following sustained community organizing and protests by groups including the Iowa City Catholic Worker and Escucha Mi Voz Iowa.

Leticia Jacobo, a 24-year-old Native American woman, was jailed in Iowa for a traffic infraction and faced potential transfer to an ICE Detention Center for deportation. Indigenous rights groups intervened to prevent her deportation.

A 24-year-old Native American woman from Arizona, Leticia Jacobo, was subject to an ICE detainer issued by Polk County Jail in Des Moines. The detainer was intended for a different person booked at the same time but was erroneously placed on Jacobo's file. Her family provided tribal identification documents, and she was released before being transferred to federal custody.

Daniel Angel Meléndez, an immigrant from El Salvador, was detained by ICE agents on November 4 during a yearly check-in in Cedar Rapids. His wife María Lozano, a U.S. citizen, and family members appealed to U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks at a town hall on November 10 to prevent his deportation. Meléndez has a U.S.-born child and has been in the country since 2017, having applied for asylum based on gang violence threats.

Armando Garcia Picazo, detained by ICE in August without legal status, was ordered released by federal judge Leonard Strand after being denied bond approved by an immigration judge. Garcia Picazo was held at Woodbury County jail for over two months before filing a habeas corpus lawsuit. He was required to post $6,000 bond and will continue his immigration case on a non-detained docket.

Ian Roberts, superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools and a native of Guyana, was arrested by ICE on September 26, 2025, on a fugitive warrant after living in the U.S. illegally following a federal immigration judge's removal order. Roberts entered the country on an F-1 student visa in 1999, and his work authorization expired in 2020; he had falsely claimed U.S. citizenship when hired by the district in 2023. During the arrest, authorities found him in possession of a loaded handgun, a hunting knife, and $3,000 in cash, and he reportedly fled in a school-provided vehicle before being apprehended with state patrol assistance. He has prior weapons charges on his record and is expected to plead guilty to federal charges of making false statements on employment verification forms. Roberts is no longer serving as superintendent of the district.

Felipe de Jesus Hernandez Marcelo, a 28-year-old single father from Mexico who works construction in Muscatine, Iowa, was shot twice during an attempted robbery on June 21, 2025, suffering near-fatal gunshot wounds to his arm and leg. After emergency surgery, he went to the police station days later to retrieve his impounded car and belongings, but officers arrested him on an old unpaid traffic warrant and transferred him to ICE custody within hours. He has since been held at Muscatine County Jail, separated from his young son and mother, and says he was denied pain medication for five days and unable to attend medical appointments or physical rehabilitation. He is seeking a U visa as a crime victim cooperating against his attackers, one of whom pleaded guilty, but the county prosecutor has not certified his eligibility. A federal judge ruled his detention without a bond hearing illegal, but Immigration Judge Alexandra Larsen later denied him bond, calling his U visa eligibility 'speculative at best.' His attorney, Emily Rebelskey, said she would continue fighting for his release. His case is among a growing number of crime victims detained for removal following the Trump administration's January 2025 rescission of a policy shielding such victims.

Juan Lopez, a landscaper who had lived and worked in Des Moines for nearly four decades, was pulled over by five unmarked ICE vehicles while driving to work at Iowa Irrigation in Huxley. Agents smashed his truck's windows and removed him from the vehicle while he was on the phone with his partner, Laura Becerra, the mother of his seven children. Lopez is being held at the Polk County Jail under an ICE detainer, one of six Iowa county jails that holds ICE detainees. His daughter, Tiffany Lopez, said the family was "furious" over how he was detained, and advocacy group Escucha Mi Voz Iowa is demanding his release.

A Laotian refugee who entered the U.S. in 1981 was detained by ICE in July 2025 after 25 years of supervised release following a removal order. The court found the government failed to demonstrate changed circumstances or significant likelihood of removal, violating immigration law. Chief Judge Stephanie Rose ordered his immediate release and restoration to supervised release status.

Kyaw Mya, a man from Myanmar who lived in Iowa, was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in February 2025 after losing an appeal of a 2021 removal order. He was placed on a deportation flight to South Sudan that a federal judge later found violated a court order requiring migrants be given a meaningful opportunity to object to their removal.