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A federal judge ruled that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) illegally detained a man in Iowa after a court ordered his release, finding the agency had no legal authority at the time and later attempted to “cover its tracks.”
In a Jan. 2 order, U.S. District Judge Stephen Locher said ICE violated federal law when it detained Jorge Eliecer Gonzalez Ochoa on Dec. 23 because it had not yet issued a valid “Notice to Appear,” a document the court said is required to start removal proceedings and justify detention.
“It is undisputed that ICE had an arrest warrant and order to detain as of that time, but that a Notice to Appear was not issued until some unspecified time later in the day,” Locher wrote.
Although ICE later issued a Notice to Appear and thereby “cured” the initial defect, the court said the agency’s actions at the time of the arrest were unlawful and inconsistent with federal regulations.
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Iowa City residents gather Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, at the Pentacrest to protest the killing of a Minnesota woman by an ICE agent. (Jessica Rish/Press-Citizen / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)
Locher sharply criticized ICE for mailing the Notice to Appear later that day rather than serving it in person while Gonzalez Ochoa was already in custody.
“In context, it appears that ICE served the Notice to Appear by regular mail to obfuscate the timing of events and suggest that it might have been issued at the same time as the arrest warrant and order to detain. In other words, ICE knew it should not have issued the arrest warrant and order to detain in the absence of a Notice to Appear but sought to ‘cover its tracks,’” the judge wrote.
“This is unacceptable. With no pending removal proceeding, and no Notice to Appear, ICE was required to allow Gonzalez Ochoa to be released at 10:00 a.m., period — not to arrest him and then scramble around later to backfill crucial missing documents in a misleading way,” he added.
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A community member holds a sign advocating for the release of Jorge Elieser González Ochoa during a rally on the pedestrian mall in downtown Iowa City, Iowa, on Sept. 26, 2025. (Julia Hansen/Iowa City Press-Citizen / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)
The court declined to order Gonzalez Ochoa’s immediate release but ruled he is entitled to an individualized bond hearing in the Immigration Court within seven days.
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Court documents reviewed by Digital show that Gonzalez Ochoa is a native of Colombia who entered the United States after fleeing what he said were threats against him and his family. He was initially placed into immigration removal proceedings in late 2024, but they were dismissed in October 2025 at the request of the Department of Homeland Security.
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Gonzalez Ochoa was separately indicted by a grand jury in the Southern District of Iowa on Oct. 9 on charges of fraud and misuse of documents, unlawful use of immigration identification documents, and false representation of a Social Security number.
He remained in custody pending those criminal proceedings until a judge ordered his release under conditions in December, setting the stage for ICE’s subsequent detention.
