116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Cedar Rapids community rallies around immigrants in wake of increased ICE action
Hundreds of people showed up at Department of Homeland Security offices Wednesday to accompany immigrants to their check-in appointments with Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Oct. 1, 2025 6:29 pm, Updated: Oct. 1, 2025 6:50 pm
The Gazette offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
CEDAR RAPIDS — On Thursday, Sept. 25 — the same day federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were recorded tackling and arresting an Iowa City man at his job at Bread Garden Market in Iowa City — Diego Barrios and his wife Blanca Nava were at their home in Cascade, Iowa, attending an immigration court hearing over video call.
Barrios had been called in for a hearing to check on his immigration status. Originally from Mexico, he has lived in the United States for 24 years. He and Nava have three kids — ages 11, 8, and 7 — who are U.S. citizens.
According to Nava, Barrios was charged in 2023 with fraud after officials said he used a fake social security number to get a job. The Gazette was unable to verify this charge, as it doesn’t show up in a search of online federal or state court records, but Nava said Barrios served time in jail for the charge and was released in 2024.
Since then, he hasn’t worked. He stays home with the three children, and takes their oldest son — who has autism and is non-verbal — to regular therapy appointments. Nava, who has a work permit, works to provide for the family.
Things went well at Barrios’ hearing Thursday, and the judge did not issue an order of detention or deportation, so the couple was feeling confident about Barrios’ status in the U.S. Still, they asked their lawyer if Barrios should attend his ICE check-in meeting that was scheduled a week later, on Wednesday. She told them he should.
Barrios did not come out of his appointment in Cedar Rapids on Wednesday. He was detained by ICE and told that he’ll be seeing an immigration judge again in a few days to determine whether he will be deported or given a work permit and allowed to stay in the country.
“He called me and said ‘They are going to take me, because according to them the crime that I committed means I need to be in jail,’” Nava told The Gazette in Spanish. “My son is going to have to go without his therapy now because I can’t leave my job … (Barrios) had his appointment with the immigration judge last Thursday and the judge didn’t say anything about an order of arrest. Right now they’re deciding to arrest people just because they want to.”
Escucha Mi Voz protest Wednesday
Tensions around immigration enforcement have been growing across Iowa after ICE officers publicly tackled and arrested an Iowa City man last Thursday, and arrested the superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools on Friday.
Escucha Mi Voz, an Iowa City nonprofit that champions immigrant rights in Iowa, hosted a protest Wednesday morning outside the Cedar Rapids ICE office to show support to immigrants like Barrios who had check-in appointments that morning and to express their frustration with ICE action in Iowa.
The nonprofit regularly accompanies immigrants who ask for their support at check-in appointments, and their numbers have grown this year as President Donald Trump’s administration has put more resources into increasing immigration enforcement. The accompaniments, which earlier this year drew a few dozen participants, have grown in recent months to full-blown rallies with hundreds of attendees featuring chants, songs, and speeches from Escucha Mi Voz organizers, elected officials, religious leaders, and immigrants themselves.
As these rallies outside the Cedar Rapids office have grown, ICE has responded, stationing officers outside the building, restricting who can enter the office with immigrants checking in, and — last month — putting up a police tape border to block protesters from standing on the front lawn of the building, forcing them to stand in the street — on Square Drive SW — instead.
Now, Escucha Mi Voz organizers are trying to take the lawn space back.
ICE lawn is public Cedar Rapids city property
Earlier this week, Escucha Mi Voz released a letter that organizers sent to the city of Cedar Rapids — addressed to the mayor, police chief, city manager, and city attorney — pointing out that, according to Linn County property records, the federally-owned property only extends a few feet past the entrance of the Department of Homeland Security Building, where the ICE office is housed, and the rest of the front lawn of the building is city-owned, and therefore, public property.
“As you know, sidewalks, streets, and other public rights of way are recognized as ‘traditional public forums’ under the First Amendment. Residents have the strongest possible constitutional protections for peaceful speech and assembly in these spaces,“ the letter reads. ”The City of Cedar Rapids retains jurisdiction over its public right of way, and no federal agency has the authority to close or obstruct those spaces without lawful municipal approval or a valid court order.“
The nonprofit asked the city to remove the barriers placed by the Department of Homeland Security and issue a notice of violation for each instance when the area is obstructed.
The city responded Tuesday evening, in an email sent to Rev. Jonathan Heifner of St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, who works with Escucha Mi Voz and sent the initial letter.
In the email, which was obtained by The Gazette, the city acknowledged that the lawn space in front of the building is within its right of way, which means that normally any barriers in the space would require an obstruction permit from the city, which DHS did not have. But the email went on to explained that DHS has “asserted federal authority to establish temporary barriers outside the ICE office,” and that the city was working with the federal agency to “evaluate the supremacy of federal authority in this instance.”
In a statement distributed to media Wednesday evening, the city said DHS “continues to work with the City on a permitting path to bring their use of the right-of-way into alignment with City requirements.”
ICE officials did not respond to The Gazette’s requests for comment.
‘We have got about an inch, right? We’re planning to take a mile.’
Protesters arrived Wednesday morning at the DHS office, prepared to push the barrier. DHS had once again put up police tape to keep protesters away from the building, but this time the federal agency left open a small corner of the lawn, which protesters filled to avoid standing in the street.
Escucha Mi Voz hosted a training last weekend to prepare protesters to link arms and “take lawful action and … move as one body” in order to push the barrier back, according to Pastor Emma Peterson of the Cedar Valley Unitarian Universalists, who spoke during the rally.
“We have got about an inch, right? We’re planning to take a mile. I need y’all to be patient with us, while we play the long game,” Peterson said.
Despite initial plans to push past the barrier, Escucha Mi Voz organizers said that in their conversations with the city and with DHS before the rally, they’d been told that crossing the barrier would be a federal crime, and so in the interest of keeping protesters safe, they would not be crossing the line Wednesday.
“They are giving us crumbs. This is crumbs. But for now, we are going to keep you safe, and we’re going to have to agree with this. Today, not always,” Escucha Mi Voz organizer Alejandra Escobar said during the rally.
“We learned last night that to cross this line would be a federal charge, and while that ain’t right — that’s not right, in our right of way — but we need time to figure that out. So, we aren’t going to cross this line today,” Heifner said.
Still, organizers celebrated the small part of the lawn that had been opened up, calling it a “win” and a “concession” from the federal agency. They said the additional space was the only reason they were able to connect with Barrios.
Before the rally started, organizers made an announcement in Spanish over loudspeakers, inviting immigrants who were standing in line outside the office — in an area past the barrier that protesters could only reach with their voices — to give organizers their information if they wanted to have support from the organization during and after their check-in. Barrios was the first to approach and fill out a form, which is how the organization was able to learn about his detention and get in contact with Nava to offer support.
“This is a win today, because finally we are in shouting distance of the people that are waiting in this line,” Peterson said. “I need you to believe us when we tell you that we are winning.”
A couple of altercations broke out between protesters and DHS officers outside the building, as a few protesters attempted to push past the barrier and were pushed back by officers, but no arrests were made.
Protesters also heard Wednesday from Evelyn Taco, an Ecuadorian immigrant who lives in Coralville with her daughter. Taco, who has been in the United States for two years, had a check-in appointment Wednesday morning, and left the office with a new appointment date scheduled in about 14 months.
“Not only did I come with God today, I came with people that God sent, angels that surround me,” Taco told The Gazette in Spanish. “We’re afraid, but every day we see people, American citizens, who support us Latinos, and that’s great. We feel cared for, by a lot of people from here in the United States.”
Escucha Mi Voz invited protesters to return to the ICE office next Tuesday morning to accompany more immigrants to their check-in appointments. After the rally Tuesday, the nonprofit plans to attend the Cedar Rapids City Council meeting at noon.
Comments: (319) 398-8328; emily.andersen@thegazette.com
Daily Newsletters