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Multiple immigrants detained at ICE check-ins Tuesday despite community rally outside Cedar Rapids ICE office
Hundreds of people, including local elected officials, attended the rally to support immigrants who were attending mandatory check-in appointments
Aug. 5, 2025 5:56 pm, Updated: Aug. 6, 2025 8:21 am
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CEDAR RAPIDS — Multiple Iowa residents were detained at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Cedar Rapids Tuesday morning, as community members stood outside, raising signs and chants in support of immigrants.
The rally was one of several ICE accompaniments that Iowa City nonprofit Escucha Mi Voz has organized this year, in which Eastern Iowa community members accompany immigrants to their check-in appointments at the ICE office in an attempt to decrease chances that those attending the appointments will be detained.
Hundreds of people came out Tuesday morning to support immigrants. Among them were a number of elected officials: Iowa state Sens. Molly Donahue and Liz Bennett; Iowa state Reps. Angel Ramirez, Jeff Cooling and Amy Wichtendahl; Iowa City Mayor Bruce Teague; Iowa City Council members Shawn Harmsen, Oliver Weilein and Joshua Moe; West Liberty City Council member Dana Dominguez; and Johnson County Supervisors Jon Green and Mandi Remington.
The elected officials were paired with immigrants to enter the ICE building with them for their check-ins. Escucha Mi Voz planned to accompany five individuals to their appointments Tuesday, all of whom left their check-ins without incident and with their next appointment scheduled for one year from now.
During the rally, organizers spoke with several other people who had check-ins scheduled Tuesday and were waiting outside the building. Some of those individuals accepted accompaniment from a government official, and several of them did not exit the building after their check-ins.
Some immigrants detained at Tuesday check-ins
Three individuals were detained, according to a press release issued by Escucha Mi Voz Tuesday afternoon. Only two of the detained immigrants were named: Hugo Zamora of Postville, and Moctar Sanogo of Muscatine.
Officials at the Cedar Rapids ICE office declined to comment on the protest, and declined to confirm the number of individuals detained Tuesday. Instead, ICE employees directed media to the ICE national media office, whose phone was busy throughout Tuesday afternoon.
Mariann Fant, a volunteer with Neighbors helping Neighbors through the Iowa Peace and Justice Center and the Decorah United Church of Christ drove Zamora to the Cedar Rapids office for his appointment Tuesday. Fant said she has volunteered to give rides for immigration check-ins in the past, and it’s always been a quick process. She expected the same on Tuesday, despite not knowing much about Zamora except that his was not considered to be a high-risk appointment.
“I’m just kind of shocked,” she said. “Basically, we just don’t know why he’s being detained.”
Johnson County Supervisor Jon Green accompanied Zamora into his meeting. He said he waited with Zamora in the lobby of the building for about 20 minutes, and then Zamora was taken into another room by ICE officials.
Green said he received one text message from Zamora that said officials were reviewing his paperwork and it seemed complicated, but he was fine.
Green waited in the lobby for about two more hours before learning Zamora was being detained.
Sanogo, the other person who was detained Tuesday, arrived at his appointment with his wife, Maria Carlos. Carlos is a U.S. citizen who immigrated here almost 30 years ago. She met Sanogo about five years ago when he immigrated to the United States from Mali and she was volunteering through her church to provide food and clothes to newly arrived immigrants. They’ve been married four years, and have been in the process of applying for permanent residency status for Sanogo.
As part of that process, Carlos said Sanogo had been organizing his affairs for a voluntary departure so he could avoid a deportation on his record and likely would be able to return to the U.S. quickly with his wife’s support. Now, Carlos is worried he won’t have that chance.
“He was going to leave voluntarily. It wasn’t necessary to detain him, because he was going to leave voluntarily and we had plans so that I was going to bring him back,” Carlos told The Gazette in Spanish after exiting the ICE building without her husband. “… My husband didn’t have a reason to hide because he’s not a criminal. He’s not hiding from the police here or in his home country of Mali.”
Carlos said she was glad to see how many people came to the accompaniment and rally.
“I felt a great support from people, because you can come with your husband, you can come with faith in God, but if there’s nobody around you offering some kind of support, it feels like there’s a void,” she said, in Spanish.
Several members of the Justice and Liberation Coalition, a group that formed recently in the Cedar Rapids area to advocate for social justice causes, stayed after Tuesday’s protest. Cedar Rapids police were called to the area briefly when some coalition members parked their cars outside the office in an attempt to block ICE vehicle from leaving the parking lot. Tow trucks were called, but the owners of the cars moved them and no arrests were made.
Yusvely Briceño, one of the original five immigrants Escucha Mi Voz had planned to accompany and who left her appointment without being detained, said she also was glad to see the support from community members.
“I’m really happy to see so much support,” she said, in Spanish.
Briceño is originally from Venezuela and has been in the United States for 19 months. She has a work visa and has had two previous check-in appointments with ICE, before Tuesday’s appointment.
This time, she said she asked Escucha Mi Voz to accompany her because she has seen stories about other immigrants arriving alone to their appointments and being detained.
Support for Pascual Pedro continues
Escucha Mi Voz has organized several protests in the last month that have centered on Pascual Pedro, a 20-year-old West Liberty resident who was deported in July, less than a week after he was detained at his annual check-in. He spoke, from Guatemala, in a Zoom press conference last week, about his detention and deportation.
“I'm actually, like, not mad, but I just feel sorry about what's going on, because people like me that, we're actually doing the right thing, actually working for a better life, a better future, we're the ones that are affected by everything that's going on. I'm just thinking about it, the past four weeks here, like, why us?” Pedro said on the call.
Pedro, now 20, was marked for expedited removal when he arrived in the United States with his father in 2018 at age 13. His father was deported, but Pedro was allowed to stay under supervised release with his grandparents, who have lived in the United States since 1991. He attended his annual check-in meetings with ICE, had no criminal record, and had previously been approved for a work permit.
Lulu Newhart-Roarick, one of the attendees at Tuesday’s accompaniment, said she was inspired to attend the rally after hearing about Pedro’s deportation. Newhart-Roarick, 19, said she was surprised to hear about someone close to her age, without a criminal record, being removed from the country. She had volunteered in the past with Iowa City Catholic Worker House, which partners closely with Escucha Mi Voz, and she said she felt attending the rally was the right thing to do.
“A big thing in the Catholic faith is being welcoming to everyone,” Newhart-Roarick said. “The big thing is to keep families together.”
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders released a video Monday in support of the protests against Pedro’s deportation. The video briefly explains Pedro’s deportation, stating incorrectly that he came to the U.S. when he was 8, rather than 13, and includes clips of family members and community members talking about his experience with ICE.
In a caption posted to social media with the video, Sanders called Pedro’s detention unacceptable.
“Yes, we should deport people convicted of serious crimes. But NO, we can’t destroy families who have lived in this country peacefully,” the caption reads.
Comments: (319) 398-8328; emily.andersen@thegazette.com
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