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Immigrants in Iowa fear deportation at regular check-in meetings
Iowa City nonprofit reports more than 60 percent increase in people seeking help with immigration-related needs like legal aid, protective accompaniment
Mar. 25, 2025 5:30 am, Updated: Mar. 25, 2025 11:35 am
The Gazette offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
CEDAR RAPIDS — Reina Marroquin arrived at the Cedar Rapids Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office Monday morning for an immigration check-in with her two children and more than 100 community supporters. About five minutes after entering the office, she emerged and was greeted by cheers from the community members who were there to support her.
Marroquin was paroled into the United States in 2022 and her official immigration case still is pending. Her last court hearing was in October. Marroquin, who originally is from Guatemala, came to the United States fleeing violence, according to a news release from Escucha Mi Voz, an Iowa City nonprofit that works with immigrants.
Immigrants like Marroquin who are on parole or otherwise awaiting immigration court dates are required to check in with ICE regularly to verify that details like their address and work status have not changed.
The check-in was unexpected. At Marroquin’s last check-in, on March 3, she was told her next appointment would be May 8. But on March 14, ICE officers showed up unannounced at her home in Postville. She declined to open the door for them, but was told through the door that her next check-in meeting was being moved forward.
Marroquin was concerned about the changed check-in date because her husband, Ernesto Muj Ixen, was recently detained by ICE. He entered the country without inspection, and was pulled over and detained while driving to work Feb. 28. He is in the process of requesting asylum through a credible fear interview, but faces the possibility of deportation.
Marroquin reached out to Escucha Mi Voz and the nonprofit organized an accompaniment vigil for her, in which volunteers walked with her to the doors of the ICE office.
Escucha Mi Voz has seen an increase in the last few months in people seeking help with immigration-related concerns. David Goodner, an executive director of Escucha Mi Voz, said the nonprofit had about 1,200 people come through its doors in 2024 seeking help with housing, legal aid, transportation, protective accompaniment, health system navigation and other assistance.
In the first quarter of 2025, the nonprofit has already seen 500 people coming in looking for help. If that trend holds, it will be a 67 percent increase from last year.
Escucha Mi Voz has already accompanied 30 people to check-ins so far this year, provided 35 free immigration consults, and given 14 microloans to help people get started on legal cases related to immigration.
‘It’s really unfair how they’re treating us’
Marroquin told her story in Spanish in a video that was shown during a Zoom meeting Sunday night, during which Escucha Mi Voz volunteers and other community members met to make plans to accompany Marroquin to her Monday check-in.
“Thank God that my kids weren’t here when they came to my door that day. When they came home from school, I told them what happened, and they haven’t been the same since. They can’t sleep. They’ve been sad. They’ve been scared. They’re so worried they don’t want to leave or open the door for anyone,” Marroquin said in the video, according to a translator in the Zoom meeting Sunday.
“It’s really unfair how they’re treating us. We do deserve to be treated like human beings, and to be treated with respect just like they do. We’re here to ask for the support of all of you,” she said through the translator.
A few selected volunteers attempted to accompany Marroquin inside the ICE office Monday, but they were denied entry.
“We’ve done this in the past and oftentimes it’s very routine. This time we’re a little more concerned,” Tom Mohan, one of the volunteers who planned to accompany Marroquin into the building, said.
Mohan has accompanied other immigrants into the ICE officer for regular check-ins, so he said he was surprised when the volunteers were rejected this time at the door. But he was glad that Marroquin’s check-in was quick and easy, and she was able to leave the appointment and go home with her family.
“We celebrate the power of our community, our presence, and our faith,” Mohan said.
Alejandra Escobar, another leader with Escucha Mi Voz, agreed.
“They saw our presence. They saw our power. And they let her go,” Escobar said in a rally after Marroquin left the ICE office. “This is what it looks like when community shows up for each other with faith and fire.”
“We’re celebrating Reina’s release, but we’re not done,” said Iowa City Catholic Worker Ann Tabor. “ICE has turned the Cedar Rapids office into a pipeline of harassment, intimidation, and detention. We will be back — louder, bigger, and more prepared to disrupt their cruelty.”
Some immigrants fled violence at home to seek asylum in U.S.
Some of the other immigrants that Escucha Mi Voz works with, who have reported for regular check-ins in the past few months, have not had the same luck that Marroquin did in avoiding detention at a check-in.
Sulyeka Ochoa, originally from Guatemala, spoke during the planning and support meeting Sunday, and told supporters about her husband, Ignacio Jesus Flores-Garcia, who was detained March 13 when he went into the ICE office for a regular check-in.
“He had a check-in every month just like everyone else, and everything was fine until this last check-in that he went to,” Ochoa said in the meeting, through a translator. “He called me later that day to tell me that he’d been detained. It’s just been very difficult. We come to this country because we can’t go back because our home country is very dangerous.”
Ochoa said her husband was told he was being detained because he had a prior deportation 16 years ago. Ochoa did not provide other details about the status of her husband’s immigration case, but automated case information online shows he has a hearing scheduled for April 2.
Another couple who spoke with The Gazette, Felipe and Jhojan, who came to the United States from Colombia, visited the ICE office in Cedar Rapids for a regular check-in on Feb. 5. Felipe was detained by ICE officers at that check-in.
Escucha Mi Voz helped connect Jhojan and Felipe to an immigration attorney who helped with their case, but at a hearing in Texas on Feb. 19, a judge ruled that Felipe would be deported. He still is being held in detention in Louisiana. Jhojan said he’s been told Felipe will be sent back to Colombia soon.
Jhojan told The Gazette he believes Felipe’s detention and deportation are due to a clerical error on ICE’s part, but The Gazette has not been able to verify this detail because ICE officials have not responded to multiple requests for comment over the past two months.
Felipe and Jhojan came to the United States seeking asylum in June of last year. They fled Colombia after the Gulf Clan, a paramilitary group in Colombia, threatened their lives. Jhojan asked The Gazette not to use his or Felipe’s last names, fearing retribution by the Gulf Clan now that Felipe will be returning to Colombia.
A gay couple, Felipe and Jhojan were well-known activists in the LGBTQ community in Concordia, Colombia. Jhojan said their activism drew the attention of the Gulf Clan, and they started receiving regular threats.
“We wanted to start a movement in the town, so people would want to live more openly, and have things like LGBTI sexual education classes,” Jhojan told The Gazette in an interview conducted in Spanish. “But since Concordia is practically militarized by (the Gulf Clan), we started to get threats, to the point that one of my cousins who is, or was, also homosexual, they murdered him.”
The couple moved to the larger city of Medellín — about three hours away by car — in an attempt to escape the Gulf Clan, but the threats continued until they were eventually attacked outside their home and beaten.
“The police were actually colluded with them, and they didn’t help us at all. They were letting that group know that we weren’t heeding the threats, and we decided to get out of there,” Jhojan said.
They left Medellín on June 27, 2024, and entered the United States through the San Ysidro, California port of entry on July 3, 2024. They were detained and moved to a detention center in Louisiana — the Jackson Parish Correctional Center — where they requested asylum.
Both men went through a credible fear screening, which includes an interview in which immigrants seeking asylum are asked to explain why they have a fear of harm if they are returned to their country of origin.
Initially, Felipe didn’t pass the credible fear screening, but Jhojan did, and under U.S. immigration law, spouses and domestic partners can be included on each other’s credible fear ruling if one or the other is found to have a credible fear. With the help of a Louisiana immigration lawyer, they were able to connect their cases, and both were granted permission to stay in the country, awaiting an asylum hearing scheduled for March.
Their check-in was scheduled in Cedar Rapids in February, after the couple let ICE officials know they would be living in New Hampton, Iowa, with Jhojan’s aunt, who has lived in the country for three years.
Jhojan said he believes Felipe’s case file was not updated in ICE’s system to show that Felipe had been granted credible fear along with Jhojan. He believes that’s why Felipe was detained at the February check-in.
“An ICE official ... told Felipe to stand up and grab his belongings … and he told him that he was going to detain him, that he had a deportation order, that he already had an order to deport him and that he didn’t have any documentation to stay in this country,” Jhojan said, in Spanish. “What seemed weird to us is we had just presented ourselves there to show them that yes, he has the documents, that he has parole, that he has a probationary stay of one year.”
Currently, Jhojan is gathering money from supportive friends and family to send to Felipe when he arrives back in Colombia. Jhojan is planning to stay in the United States for now and continue pursuing the immigration process for himself, so that hopefully Felipe can join him later.
“Really, in Colombia, we aren’t safe because of problems with bad people, but if this country rejects me as well, I will have to return to Colombia and try to be alright,” Jhojan said, in Spanish. “We’ve been doing everything right, and that’s why this surprised us so much, that even though we’ve done everything right, they’re doing this to us.”
Editors note: This article has been translated to Spanish by reporter Emily Andersen and is available here.
Comments: (319) 398-8328; emily.andersen@thegazette.com
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