Articles Tagged: Escucha Mi Voz

An Iowa City auditorium that’s meant to hold hundreds of people was full Saturday afternoon as community members gathered to hear from two men who were recently released from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, and to receive training about what to do as witness of an arrest by ICE officers.

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.

Getsy Hernandez has only been working as a community organizer for Iowa City nonprofit Escucha Mi Voz for about four months, but she said it feels like she’s been doing it her entire life.

Three organizers with Escucha Mi Voz, a nonprofit that hosts regular accompaniment rallies for immigrants attending immigration check-in appointments at the Department of Homeland Security Office in Cedar Rapids, were issued trespass warnings Wednesday morning after two of them crossed a police tape barrier to talk with people waiting in line outside the office, according to a news release from the nonprofit.

Hundreds of community members huddled together Tuesday morning outside the U.S. Department of Homeland Security building in Cedar Rapids to show their support for more than 50 immigrants who were attending regular check-in appointments with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.

Alejandra Escobar is comfortable in front of a crowd, and not just because of her work as a protest organizer. She has been studying and performing music for most of her life, and before she started working for Iowa City nonprofit Escucha Mi Voz, she was pursuing a doctorate degree in piano performance at the University of Iowa — a program she never finished, because she decided to dedicate her time to advocacy work instead.

The number of immigrants arrested by ICE in Iowa this year is at an all-time high, and many of those arrested do not have criminal convictions, despite repeated claims by President Donald Trump’s administration that increased immigration enforcement this year is meant to target dangerous criminals.

In March 2024, a report revealed that more than half of Latino immigrants were chronically homeless in Johnson County. Since then, living conditions and affordability have deteriorated further for Latino immigrants as families’ providers are arrested.

Immigrant workers make up roughly 7.4 percent of the state’s workforce. Now, some might be at risk.

An 18-year-old Des Moines Public Schools student was detained and deported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to an immigrant rights group.

A seven-foot fence that the Department of Homeland Security is planning to erect in front of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Cedar Rapids — in an ongoing dispute with protesters over the lawn space in front of the building — will not require a permit after the city of Cedar Rapids said it has discovered an error in the property record that puts the intended fence on federal property.

Hundreds of people showed up Wednesday when Escucha Mi Voz, an Iowa City nonprofit that champions immigrant rights in Iowa, hosted a protest outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices in Cedar Rapids to show support for immigrants and to push back against increased ICE arrests.

The U.S. General Services Administration is looking to lease office space in Des Moines and several other cities across the country for “law enforcement operations.” Immigration advocates in Iowa fear that could mean an additional processing facility and detention center for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Officers from the Cedar Rapids Police Department stood by Tuesday morning to enforce a police-tape barrier outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in the Cedar Rapids Homeland Security building, while hundreds of community members gathered in the street to protest deportations and support immigrants reporting to the office for check-in appointments.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said the Iowa National Guard stands ready to coordinate with the federal government to potentially assist U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement with administrative and clerical duties related to the detention and deportation of migrants in their custody, though specifics are still pending.