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Iowa attorney wants ICE officer to answer questions under oath

Detention case sparks move to have ICE officer appear in court

Attorneys for an ICE detainee held in the Polk County Jail are seeking a court hearing at which an ICE deportation officer can be questioned under oath about claims the agency is making.

The case involves Suraj Vasal, who in 2022 came to the United States from India seeking asylum and was then released on his own recognizance.

Court filings indicate that on Feb. 11, 2026, Vasal was driving a commercial semitruck on Interstate 80 in Iowa when he failed to stop at a weigh station. Iowa State Patrol Trooper Nathaniel Rippey pulled Vasal over, ticketed him, and then made an “immigration inquiry” to have Immigration and Customs Enforcement check Vasal’s status.

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According to court filings by Blake W. DeVary, an ICE deportation officer based in Des Moines, ICE officers took custody of Vasal during the traffic stop. They initially detained him within the agency’s “hold room” inside the Neal Smith Federal Building in Des Moines, according to the court filings, and then transferred him to the Polk County Jail, where he remains today.

Vasal’s attorney, Alexander Smith, has since taken ICE, the Department of Homeland Security and Polk County Jail Administrator Cory Williams to court, alleging ICE arrested Vasal without a warrant.

In response, Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Peyton Gaumer has accused Smith of “playing fast and loose with the facts,” asserting that ICE had a valid warrant to detain Vasal based on the criminal act of failing to stop at the weigh station. Smith recently acknowledged that while such a warrant exists, it wasn’t publicly accessible from ICE at the time he initiated his lawsuit.

Smith is now seeking a court hearing at which DeVary can be questioned under oath about his claim that ICE was exercising its discretion in considering whether a weigh-station violation — an offense for which there is no possible jail sentence — was evidence that Vasal posed a danger to the community and was thus subject to mandatory detention.

In court filings, Smith says the government “only gets to detain people who are a danger or a flight risk.” Smith added that DeVary’s claim that ICE determined Vasal was a danger to the public due to the weigh-station violation “is not believable.”

Smith also says the government is putting forward two contradictory theories as to why it is detaining Vasal: First, that he poses a danger to the public, and second, that as someone who entered the country without authorization, he is automatically subject to mandatory detention.

The government, Smith argues, “needs to pick a lane” and choose one of those two explanations for its conduct.

In addition to ICE and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, the defendants in the case include Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, Polk County Sheriff Kevin Schneider and Polk County Jail Administrator Cory Williams, all of whom have denied any wrongdoing.

New cases involve immigrants from Russia, Guatemala

The Vasal case is one of several pending court cases involving ICE detainees held in Iowa county jails. Two of the newest cases involve immigrants from Guatemala and Russia:

— Jose Brito Raymundo, 24, of Dubuque, came to the United States from Guatemala in 2017 at the age of 16. He was released on his own recognizance and his application for lawful permanent residency was pending in February 2025 when he was arrested on a drunken-driving charge. He served 92 days in jail and was then taken into custody by ICE and placed in the Muscatine County Jail pending possible deportation.

Lanette Hernandez, the ICE deportation officer responsible for detainees in the Muscatine County Jail, informed the court recently that a bond hearing was expected to be held in the case on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. A district court judge has asked the parties to keep her informed as to the outcome of that hearing in immigration court.

— Iskender Almazov, 37, who came to the United States from Russia in April 2023, seeking asylum and claiming he faced persecution in Russia for his political beliefs. He was released on his own recognizance but was recently detained by ICE in the Polk County Jail and denied a bond hearing.

In court filings, Almazov claims the Department of Homeland Security detained him and revoked his status based on “President Trump’s whim and the categorical determination that, the Fifth Amendment notwithstanding, noncitizens are not entitled to due process.”

A district court judge recently ordered the Department of Justice to show cause as to why Almazov is not being unlawfully detained. The DOJ has until March 6 to provide that explanation.

Hundreds of other ICE detentions are litigated

The Iowa cases are among hundreds that have been filed across the country. Since last summer, ICE officers have been picking up and jailing individuals who entered the United States years ago without authorization and were then released on their own recognizance.

In most of those cases, immigration judges have then denied the individuals a hearing at which they could argue they’re eligible for release on bond as they pose no flight risk or danger to the community.

As a result of those immigration-court decisions, many detainees have sought relief from the U.S. District Courts, arguing their constitutional rights are being violated. To date, the courts have overwhelmingly ruled that, despite the Department of Justice’s claims to the contrary, detainees who have been in the country for months or years are not subject to mandatory detention and are entitled to bond hearings as matter of due process.

While 160 different judges in 362 separate cases have ruled against the DOJ on that issue, the department’s lawyers continue to argue that detention in such cases is mandatory.

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