Man publicly arrested by ICE in Iowa City released from custody

Jorge Gonzalez Ochoa, the man who was publicly arrested by plainclothes U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Iowa City in September, is back with his family after spending months in federal custody, following a judge’s ruling that ICE did not have the authority to detain him.

Gonzalez Ochoa, who is originally from Colombia, entered the United States without documentation in October 2024 with his fiance.

Video of Gonzalez Ochoa’s arrest, recorded by a bystander, circulated online following the Sept. 25 arrest. It shows ICE officers tackling Gonzalez Ochoa to the ground and arresting him at the Bread Garden Market in Iowa City.

  Buy Photo

Gonzalez Ochoa was later charged in federal court with fraud and other related charges after federal officials say he was working at the Bread Garden Market under a false name, having given the store owners a fake social security number and permanent resident card.

In October, a crowd of supporters flooded a federal courtroom in Davenport during a detention hearing, held to determine whether Gonzalez Ochoa would be held by U.S. Marshals on his federal charges or be released on bond or his own recognizance. At the time, federal prosecutors said such a release would not lead to freedom because Gonzalez Ochoa would then be transferred to ICE custody.

After the hearing, Judge Stephen Jackson Jr. gave the prosecution and the defense additional time to file documents in support of or opposition to Gonzalez Ochoa’s release. Neither party filed additional documents, and Jackson ordered Gonzalez Ochoa be released from U.S. Marshals custody on Dec. 8, without bond but with conditions of supervision.

Gonzalez Ochoa’s fraud case is ongoing, and a jury trial has been scheduled for March 2.

“The government has failed to meet its burden of proof to show Defendant is a serious risk flight — that he will intentionally and actively move within or outside the jurisdiction to avoid court proceedings or supervision,” Jackson’s order denying the government’s motion for detention, filed on Dec. 3, reads.

The ruling was stayed, pending a government appeal, but Gonzalez Ochoa was officially released from U.S. Marshal custody on Oct. 23.

After being released from the custody of U.S. Marshals, Gonzalez Ochoa was taken into custody by ICE. On the same day, attorneys representing him filed a writ of habeas corpus in federal court, claiming that ICE did not have authority to detain him upon his release from U.S. Marshals custody.

The initial writ of habeas corpus is not publicly available through online court systems, but an order later filed by a judge on the matter summarizes the claims in the writ. According to that document, when Gonzalez Ochoa first arrived in the United States, he was marked for expedited removal — meaning he could be removed from the country without first seeing a judge — but his expedited removal status was dropped in favor of a judicial removal process after he was given a notice to appear and released on his own recognizance. After being released, he reported to ICE twice for scheduled check-ins that were a condition of his release.

When Gonzalez Ochoa was arrested in September, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security filed a motion to dismiss his judicial removal proceeding, and a judge granted the motion. He was not issued a new notice to appear, which would have started a new judicial removal process, until after ICE had already taken him into custody when he was released from U.S. Marshals custody.

Gonzalez Ochoa’s habeas corpus claimed that because there was no notice to appear, ICE did not have authority to take him into custody when they did. The federal agency responded by stating that it did have authority to detain Gonzalez Ochoa whether there was a notice to appear or not, because his expedited removal case was automatically reinstated when his judicial case was dismissed.

United States District Judge Stephen H. Locher disagreed with ICE’s reasoning, writing in an order filed Jan. 2 that ICE did not “provide any meaningful authority to support this argument. Instead, the only information in the record weighs squarely against their position.”

Locher did not fully grant Gonzalez Ochoa’s request that he be released on the grounds ICE did not have authority to hold him, but did order that he be granted a bond hearing within seven days of the order being filed on Jan. 2.

Details of that bond hearing are not publicly available, and Gonzalez Ochoa’s legal team declined to comment on the case, but Escucha Mi Voz, an Iowa City nonprofit that has worked with Gonzalez Ochoa, announced in a press release and a Facebook post on Saturday that Gonzalez Ochoa had been released and had returned to his family in Iowa City.

He must wear a GPS ankle monitor.

“Jorge’s case isn’t an exception — it’s what families all across Iowa are facing right now. People are being detained at work, at probation appointments, at ICE check-ins — a system designed to isolate people so no one notices when they disappear,” Escucha Mi Voz organizer Alejandra Escobar said in the release. “Jorge broke through that isolation because his community stood with him.”

Comments: (319) 398-8328; emily.andersen@thegazette.com