Iowa Attorney General Crushes Hopes of County Where Officials Vowed to Block ICE

Two months after an Iowa sheriff publicly postured that he would block Immigration and Customs Enforcement efforts in his county, he and the state are in a legal duel that has all of the county’s state funding at stake.

Iowa Republican Attorney General Brenna Bird brought the hammer down on Winneshiek County last month after giving Sheriff Dan Marx weeks to retract comments made in a Feb. 4 post, according to Fox News.

In the since-deleted post, Marx said he would “make every effort to block, interfere and interrupt” ICE operations based on a detainer, which he called “simply an unconstitutional *request* from ICE.” Detainers are documents ICE files with police agencies to prevent illegal immigrants from being released anywhere except to ICE’s custody.

Marx claimed his goal was “to make certain your rights are not being abused.”

“If their actions or paperwork are not within constitutional parameters, then we will make every effort to block, interfere and interrupt their actions from moving forward,” he wrote, adding that “the only reason detainers are issued is because the federal agency does not have enough information or has not taken the time to obtain a valid judicial warrant.”

“Simply put, they are not sure they are detaining the right person and need more time to figure it out,” he continued, claiming that “these detainers are violations of our 4th Amendment protection against warrantless search, seizure and arrest, and our 6th Amendment right to due process.”

Marx said his “long-time stance on not recognizing detainers” and involvement with immigration enforcement is based on “constitutional standards … not opinions, politics or emotions.”

Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds, noting that Marx had publicly vowed to violate the state law that requires cooperation with immigration authorities, referred the case to Bird’s office, which first tried to get a retraction from Marx. When that did not happen, Bird’s office filed a lawsuit against Marx, which would strip his county of all state funding for breaking the law.

The lawsuit noted that what Marx said and what he does are very different things. Marx has complied with every detainer filed with his office since November 26, 2018, the lawsuit said, noting that a letter sent to the state said Marx supports ICE.

But the state wrote that “by stating wrong facts about following State and federal law and misleadingly posting about complying with 21 ICE encounters, the Sheriff intentionally posted false information. That false information had the effect of discouraging violation enforcement in violation of the law.”

At the time of the lawsuit being filed, the post was still up on Facebook. But even after it was taken down, the sheriff and the state were at odds.

Bird’s office sent Marx language to post, which included the phrase, “It was wrong. It made many incorrect statements regarding my Office’s policies on ICE detainers,” according to KCCI-TV.

The new post did not use those words.

“The language of the post proposed by the Attorney General was not acceptable to the County. To demonstrate good faith, we chose to take the post down, and for the sake of transparency to the people of Winneshiek County, we are posting, below, our February 14, 2025, response to the AG’s request for information,” the new post read.

The post then noted how Marx had in fact complied with the law he initially said he opposed.

Bird noted that “sanctuary counties are illegal under Iowa law,” according to Fox News.

“Sheriff Marx was given the chance to retract his statement, follow the law, and honor ICE detainers, but he refused—even at a cost to his home county,” she said. “He left us with no choice but to take the case to court to enforce our laws and ensure cooperation with federal immigration authorities.”

Her office “gave the Sheriff an opportunity to fix his state-law violation and cooperate with immigration enforcement, but he refused—knowing that it would cost his home community.”

“All he has to do to end this is fix the problem and follow the law,” she said.

“Years of a Biden-Harris border invasion takes a serious toll—even on Iowa, and we’re a long way away from the border,” she went on. “Thankfully, President Trump hit the ground running to secure the border, crack down on drug trafficking, and reduce crime.”

Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.