On Wednesday, Gov. Kim Reynolds threatened Winneshiek County with the possible loss of all state funding after the county’s sheriff publicly restated his “long-time stance on not recognizing detainers” issued by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
In a post on Tuesday on the department’s Facebook page, Winneshiek County Sheriff Dan Marx explained he and his officers will assist ICE and other federal law enforcement agencies if requested when those agencies’ “actions and paperwork are within constitutional parameters.”
But if “their actions or paperwork are not within constitutional parameters (such as non-judicially vetted ‘detainers,’ which are very different than warrants and are simply an unconstitutional ‘request’ from ICE or other three letter federal agency to arrest or hold someone), then we will make every effort to block, interfere and interrupt their actions from moving forward.”
Marx said he had “fielded a fair number of concerns about [the] tactics” of ICE, the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies “and questions regarding the level of involvement or role the Winneshiek County Sheriff’s Office would play during such a visit or operation.” He wrote the post to “clear things up.”
The sheriff encouraged people to contact his office “should you find yourself or others in an encounter with any federal agents. We are always willing to assist with verifying credentials and the legitimacy of any paperwork federal agents should have to make certain your rights are not being abused.”
Marx had been with the sheriff’s department for 18 years when the Winneshiek County Board of Supervisors appointed him sheriff in 2015, after the previous sheriff retired. He was elected to the position in 2016, and reelected in 2020 and 2024.
“My job is to be fair, impartial, just and constitutional,” Marx said in his Facebook post. “Period.”
In a letter to the Winneshiek Board of Supervisors for the governor on Wednesday, Reynolds said, “Iowa law provides that a sheriff shall not adopt or enforce a policy or take any other action under which the sheriff prohibits or discourages the enforcement of immigration law.”
The governor is referring to a section of Iowa Code created by SF 481, which she signed into law in April 2018. Reynolds, and the Republicans in the Iowa Legislature who passed the bill, said it was necessary to address the problem of “sanctuary cities” in Iowa, despite the fact there were no sanctuary cities in Iowa. The governor was possibly more candid about the motivation for the bill in a campaign fundraising letter she sent to supporters two months earlier in which she said the bill was a way to “send a message to the far-left liberals in Des Moines and Iowa City.”
Reynolds was running for governor for the first time in 2018, after becoming governor when Terry Branstad resigned for a role in the first Trump administration. During the campaign she routinely appealed to fears Iowans might have about undocumented immigrants in the state.
SF 481 was opposed by the Iowa State Sheriffs’ & Deputies’ Association and the Iowa Police Chief Association opposed the bill, as did then-Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller and the Iowa County Attorneys Association. Law enforcement officials expressed concerns about its requirements undermining relationships officers have with immigrant communities, and the added burdens of using local officers to enforce immigration laws — something that has always been the responsibility of the federal government.
Under SF 481, anyone can file a complaint that a municipality is failing to fully cooperate with federal immigration agents. Either the Iowa Attorney General’s office or a county attorney’s office would then have to investigate the complaint. If it is determined that the municipality isn’t complying with the law, it will lose all state funds until a district court judge determines the city is in compliance.
In her letter, which she posted on X, Reynolds said, “Based on the sheriff’s posted policy this letter shall be treated as a complaint I am filing with the attorney general… Understand that a sheriff and a county can become ineligible to receive any state funds if the local entity is found to have intentionally violated the provisions of [the section of Iowa Code created by SF 481].”
The governor did not address Sheriff Marx’s objection to ICE detainers.
“The only reason detainers are issued is because the federal agency does not have enough information or has not taken the time to obtain a valid judicial warrant,” Marx wrote in his Facebook post. “Simply put, they are not sure they are detaining the right person and need more time to figure it out. For the person who could be held erroneously (or determined to be someone other than who ICE is seeking), there is a gross violation of rights at hand. Specifically, these detainers are violations of our 4th Amendment protection against warrantless search, seizure and arrest, and our 6th Amendment right to due process.”
According to analysis of SF 481 done by the Legislative Services Agency in 2018, “The denial of State funding based upon a valid finding of a violation… would potentially impact a wide range of State funding, which includes: Road Use Tax Fund allocations, grants, and reimbursements; State property tax replacements, tuition replacement, flood mitigation projects, community college funding, grants made by the Iowa Economic Development Authority, and many other areas.”
Prior to the governor’s letter on Wednesday, no complaints under the 2018 law had been filed.
When SF 481 was being considered by the legislature only two groups registered in favor of it: the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition, a conservative Christian political group, and the Iowa Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, which was described as a “nativist extremist” group in a 2015 report by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
