What was Iowa’s largest ICE raid? What to know about ICE as protests, raids increase
Cooper Worth- Protests against President Trump's immigration crackdown began in Los Angeles and spread nationwide, including to Des Moines.
- The protests were sparked by increased ICE raids and deportations
- Iowa has two ICE offices and a history of immigration raids, including a large raid in Postville in 2008.
Protests against President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown have been present in Iowa and across the U.S. for nearly a week, bringing with them scenes of both peaceful gatherings and unrest.
The protests in Los Angeles County began as a reaction to a handful of immigration raids, including one outside a Home Depot, on June 6. The raids and subsequent protests came as the Trump administration stepped up its detention and deportation of immigrants, including at workplaces, traffic stops and routine legal check-ins.
By June 7, Trump announced that 4,000 California National Guard troops would be deployed to Los Angeles to protect ICE agents and federal buildings and contain what he described as "violent, instigated riots," drawing criticism from California officials who accuse the president of stoking tension and escalating unrest.
As protests in California entered their fifth day on Tuesday, June 10, demonstrations began sprouting up in major cities around the country, including Des Moines, which was the site of a small protest at Cowles Commons.
During the Des Moines protests, groups could be heard chanting "Power to the people. No one is illegal," and "No justice, no peace. We want ICE off our streets." Des Moines police were present, but the rally stayed peaceful, according to Register reporting.
ICE officers also conducted a raid in neighboring Omaha, Nebraska, on June 10. A legislator said 75-80 people were detained at the Glen Valley Foods plant.
Here's what you need to know about ICE and the 2025 U.S. immigration protests.
What is ICE?
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, is a federal law enforcement agency that enforces immigration laws in the country by removing undocumented immigrants and preventing the illegal movement of people or contraband in and out of the country.
Since its founding in 2003, ICE has routinely conducted deportations in cities throughout the United States. Between Oct. 1, 2023, and Sept. 30, 2024, ICE agents deported 271,484 people to 192 countries, according to the agency's annual report. Fiscal year 2024 saw a 90% increase in deportations compared to 2023 and a 276% increase compared to 2022.
In January, the Polk County Sheriff's Office told the Register that ICE agents arrested one person at the Polk County Courthouse in Des Moines on Jan. 23. In February, ICE announced in a news release that it had arrested a suspected MS-13 gang member wanted for murder during a traffic stop in Des Moines.
How many undocumented immigrants are in Iowa?
Iowa is home to roughly 109,000 undocumented immigrants, according to the Migration Policy Institute.
Is ICE in Iowa?
Iowa has two ICE offices: one in Des Moines, located in the Neal Smith Federal Building at 210 Walnut St. and the other in Cedar Rapids.
Previous Iowa immigration raids in Postville, Mount Pleasant
Iowa has had a series of immigration-related raids over the past two decades.
In 2006, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers raided a Swift & Co. pork processing facility in Marshalltown, arresting 90 people.
Two years later, ICE held one of its largest immigration raids at the time in Postville, a town of 2,000 people on the northeast edge of Iowa, where agents arrested nearly 390 workers of a beef-packing plant. During his first term in office, Trump commuted the sentence of Sholom Rubashkin, an executive sentenced to 27 years on bank fraud and money laundering charges in connection with the raid.
In March 2017, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested 23 undocumented immigrants in Iowa during a three-day operation that covered five Midwest states. Days before the 10-year-anniversary of the Postvillle raid in May 2018, 32 people were arrested at a pre-stressed concrete plant outside of Mount Pleasant, an eastern Iowa town of 8,500 people.
In March 2020, ICE arrested three Guatemalan men during a raid in Cedar Rapids.
Cooper Worth is a service/trending reporter for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at cworth@gannett.com or follow him on X @CooperAWorth.
This story was updated to add a gallery.