In 2010, the town of West Liberty made news when it became the first in Iowa to count more Hispanic or Latino residents than any other identity. That year, census data showed that more than half of the town’s residents identified as Hispanic or Latino.
Today, jobs at a local meat processing plant, a historic downtown and small businesses fuel this eastern Iowa town of about 3,800 people. In the 2020 census, 58% of its residents identified themselves as Hispanic or Latino.
West Liberty made headlines again in July 2025, when resident Pascual Pedro, 20, was detained and quickly deported to Guatemala after reporting for his annual check-in with immigration officials in Cedar Rapids. Pedro arrived in the United States as a 13-year-old, accompanying his father, who was seeking work.
“Why do I deserve this thing that is happening to me? I’m just thinking about it, like, I’m not the only one in this situation,” he said at the time.
Iowa’s population growth relies on immigrants like Pedro and his father. David Peters, an agricultural and rural policy professor at Iowa State University, said more than 90% of Iowa’s population growth between 2020 and 2025 came from international immigration.
“It’s addressed workforce shortages that we have all across the state,” said Peters, who studies what it takes for rural communities to thrive. “Immigrants come in, and they buy homes, they spend their money in the community, they keep the schools running, it keeps the state revenues relatively robust.”
Only Illinois had a higher rate of population growth due to immigration between 2020 and 2025, Peters said. Iowa’s population is about 3,200,000 today, with a growth rate of just under 4%. Peters said Iowa’s growth slowed during the COVID-19 pandemic and hasn’t rebounded.
“A lot of people passed away, a lot of people delayed childbearing, and then we had a period of high inflation, a rise in home prices,” he said. “Almost all of our population growth is from international migration.”
After a year of Trump administration immigration policies, the rate of international immigration into Iowa – people arriving directly from another country – dropped by about half of what it was in 2024, according to Peters. If the trend continues, he said, Iowa will face a demographic “cliff.”
“That’s going to have implications for school consolidation, for Main Street businesses, the property tax base, as well as just finding workers to staff jobs,” he said.
West Liberty and other small towns in Iowa draw immigrants seeking work mainly because they’re home to a variety of large-scale employers – meat processing in West Liberty and Ottumwa and manufacturing and distribution centers in Mount Pleasant.
Peters said small towns and rural communities, where residents are aging and young people are leaving, are absolutely reliant on immigrants.
“If it weren’t for immigration, rural areas in Iowa would have shrunk by probably 10 to 12% in the last decade," he said. "Instead, they only shrank by 2%."
Peters said while employers in cities like Des Moines and Cedar Rapids may not struggle to find workers, businesses in rural Iowa will suffer without immigrant labor because the working population – people ages 16 to 64 – is almost fully employed.
“If a business wants to expand, there’s just not enough people to do that. And so what that threatens is the expansion of rural businesses.”
Elena Casillas-Hoffman, a spokesperson for Iowa Movement for Migrant Justice, said population growth through immigration and refugee settlement has beneficial ripple effects.
“The only reason that our population continues to grow is because of immigration, is because of our immigrant and refugee communities that come to the state and help it thrive, and bring new ideas, families, businesses and religion, language. You name it.”
‘Criminals and terrorists’
On inauguration day, Donald Trump laid out his strategy for enforcing the nation’s immigration laws and “protecting the American people against invasion.” The mass deportations he promised on “day one” of his presidency did not happen, but since then, efforts have ramped up.
According to federal data reviewed by The New York Times, in 2025, the Trump administration deported about 230,000 people who were arrested inside the country and another 270,000 at the border.
It’s not clear how many people detained in Iowa are in that number of deportees, but data analyzed by Prison Policy Initiative shows that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested more than 1,200 people in Iowa between January and October 2025. Deportation proceedings take place through courts in neighboring states.
In December, the Trump administration touted its progress in an online article with the headline: “Thanks to President Trump and Secretary Noem, More than 2.5 Million Illegal Aliens Left the U.S.” The article pointed to ICE actions, border enforcement and self-deportation as the main drivers of its success.
The administration continues to frame immigration enforcement as a bulwark against an invasion of criminals and terrorists.
Pascual Pedro, the West Liberty man deported to Guatemala, had no criminal record.
In August, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley told the Daily Iowan that despite the lack of a criminal record while in the United States, people without legal status break the law by crossing the border illegally.
“The people of Iowa elected President Trump to enforce our immigration laws, and entering the United States illegally is a removable offense,” Grassley said in a written statement.
The Midwest Newsroom requested an interview with Grassley about immigration and Iowa’s population. In response, press secretary David Bader emailed this statement:
“Americans voted overwhelmingly for a secure border, and that is what President Trump has delivered. When weighing workforce needs, the White House and Congress ought to prioritize solutions that utilize legal pathways to help ensure long-term stability, without enacting blanket amnesty,” Grassley said.
Sen. Joni Ernst’s office told The Midwest Newsroom her schedule would not allow for an interview on this subject. In an August statement to the Daily Iowan, Ernst said:
“Our nation has laws for a reason, and we can’t turn a blind eye to the essential role they play in keeping Iowans safe.”
No welcome mat
Chuy Renteria, 40, grew up in West Liberty, where his parents found jobs and put down roots. The Iowa-born author and artist said it’s hard to understand why the administration is targeting immigrants when their labor and spending are “propping up” the economy of West Liberty and other Iowa communities.
“I’ve seen it with my own eyes,” Renteria said. “West Liberty, Storm Lake, Columbus Junction, Mount Pleasant. All these little towns are thriving in ways that their sister cities are not.”
Emiliano Aguilar is a history professor at the University of Notre Dame who studies immigration.
“For generations, when immigrants want to feel like they’re at home, it’s businesses that remind them of home,” he said. “These avenues and economic corridors are quite literally not only the lifeline and the heart of immigrant communities, they’re the lifeline for small-town USA and large urban metropolitan regions alike.”
Iowa used to be a place to find safety and build lives for thousands of people from a number of war-torn countries – especially between the 1970s and early 2000s. Successive Iowa administrations welcomed refugees from Vietnam, Kosovo, Somalia, Ethiopia, the Congo and Sudan. Before that, in the 1960s, Iowa welcomed a small group of Cuban refugees who left their homeland when Fidel Castro came to power.
In April, a few months after the Trump administration began to implement deportations, the Iowa Department of Public Safety signed a 287(g) agreement with ICE to enforce immigration laws. Then, in August, Gov. Kim Reynolds directed the Iowa National Guard to work “alongside” ICE providing administrative and logistical support. She reiterated the commitment on Jan. 29, 2026.
“At one time, elected leadership in Iowa not only fostered a state that was welcoming and inclusive, but specifically said things like: ‘Come to Iowa. We want you.’ Where we are right now, for a lot of our immigrant and refugee communities, it could not be further from reality,” said Casillas-Hoffman.
'Deep, deep fear'
In November 2025, more than 200 Haitian workers lost their jobs at the JBS meat processing plant in Ottumwa after the demise of the Biden administration program that allowed Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans to live and work in the U.S. for up to two years. Some left the country immediately while others remained, hoping to gain legal status.
Casillas-Hoffman, whose organization provides legal services to immigrants and refugees with and without legal status, said the Iowa Movement for Migrant Justice has seen a “huge” spike in demand since Trump took office. She said people who have chosen Iowa as their home want to stay.
“The reality is we need immigrants and refugees,” she said. “The reality is that our small towns are only going to sustain themselves if new people come in.”
Now living in Iowa City, Renteria visits West Liberty once a week. He sees friends and neighbors struggling to come to grips with the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
“You oscillate between terror and a deep, deep fear that is running through our community,” he said. “But also there’s white-hot rage.”
The Midwest Newsroom is an investigative and enterprise journalism collaboration that includes Iowa Public Radio, KCUR, Nebraska Public Media, St. Louis Public Radio and NPR.
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METHODOLOGY
To report this story, Holly Edgell studied data about Iowa’s population and interviewed an expert to understand the role of immigration in the state’s population growth. In addition, she interviewed a former West Liberty resident for his perspective on how the current administration’s policies are perceived in his hometown. Edgell also interviewed a historian about Iowa’s past as a state for refugee resettlement and an advocate for immigrants in Iowa.
Daniel Wheaton analyzed U.S. Census Bureau data to show population trends. He reviewed data from the Prison Policy Initiative to show the number of ICE arrests in select Midwestern states.
REFERENCES
Rural Iowa At A Glance (Iowa State University Extension & Outreach | 2024)
Protecting The American People Against Invasion (The White House | Jan. 20, 2025)
West Liberty man with no criminal background deported to Guatemala (Iowa Public Radio | July 7, 2025)
Gov. Reynolds directs Iowa National Guard to support federal immigration enforcement mission (State of Iowa website | Aug. 12, 2025)
An onslaught of deportations hits Iowa communities (The Daily Iowan | Aug. 26, 2025)
Some former JBS workers with revoked visas leave Ottumwa and return to Haiti (Iowa Public Radio | Nov. 18, 2025)
New ICE arrest data show the power of state and local governments to curtail mass deportations (Prison Policy Initiative | Dec. 11, 2025)
Thanks to President Trump and Secretary Noem, More than 2.5 Million Illegal Aliens Left the U.S. (Dept. of Homeland Security | Dec. 20, 2025)
How Many People Has Trump Deported So Far? (The New York Times | Jan. 17, 2026)
Gov. Reynolds says Iowa is 'cooperating with ICE' (KCCI-TV | Jan. 30, 2026)
TYPE OF ARTICLE
News – Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
