Immigration and Customs Enforcement

Immigrants in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska are being detained for months at a time, waiting to be sent to countries where they have no ties. Some have criminal records. Others came to the country seeking asylum.

Habeas corpus is at the center of a constitutional fight over immigration detention playing out in courtrooms across the Midwest, including here in Iowa. An analysis by The Marshall Project and The Midwest Newsroom found that habeas corpus filings in four Midwestern states have been overwhelmingly successful thus far, but the legal landscape is changing. We hear from the reporters involved in the recent investigation and from a law professor about what comes next. Then, researchers hope to expand water testing capabilities with a drone that carries its own water-testing lab.

Ian Roberts admitted that he falsely claimed citizenship when he was hired by Des Moines Public Schools. He faces deportation to his native Guyana after he serves his sentence.

Noncitizens routinely won release or a bond hearing, according to a review of habeas corpus cases from Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska. But the legal landscape is changing.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is being taken to court over its efforts to deport an Iowa man back to his home country of Vietnam. The deportation efforts follow a 1997 conviction in a Des Moines shooting.

Federal immigration agent raids may have faded from the headlines, but not from many people’s minds. In northwest Iowa, community members are stepping up to help immigrants living with uncertainty.