ICE detainees, recently released from jail, speak at Iowa City legal observer training

IOWA CITY — An Iowa City auditorium that’s meant to hold hundreds of people was full Saturday afternoon as community members gathered to hear from two men who were recently released from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, and to receive training about what to do as witness of an arrest by ICE officers.

Attendees filled seats, sat on the floor and stood crowded together along the walls during the two-hour meeting, which started with Jose Yugar-Cruz and Jorge Gonzalez Ochoa sharing their stories of detention and release.

‘When we’re organized, we can win’

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Yugar-Cruz, originally from Bolivia was released from the Muscatine County Jail last week after spending more than 17 months in ICE custody. He was taken into custody shortly after entering the U.S., when he sought out and turned himself in to immigration officials in order to begin the process of requesting asylum, according to court documents related to a writ of habeas corpus Yugar-Cruz filed against Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and other immigration officials.

He was not granted asylum, but he was granted a “withholding of removal” by an immigration judge in January 2025, which meant that he could not be deported back to his own country because of a credible fear of dangers he may face there.

He was not released at the time of the ruling, and was told by ICE officials that they were looking for another country to send him to, according to court documents. In December 2025, while being held in the Muscatine County Jail, he filed the writ of habeas corpus in federal court, alleging that ICE was keeping him unlawfully. A federal judge agreed and filed the order for his release on Dec. 23. He was released last week.

Speaking during the meeting Saturday, he encouraged attendees to support the efforts of Escucha Mi Voz, an Iowa City nonprofit that organized the meeting Saturday, to provide legal assistance and other support to immigrants in situations like his.

“United we’re strong, and when we’re organized, we can win,” Yugar-Cruz said through a translator in the meeting.

‘I came to this country to make a better life for my family’

Gonzalez Ochoa, originally from Colombia, was arrested by plainclothes ICE officials at Bread Garden Market in Iowa City in September, and a video of the arrest was widely shared online. He has lived in Iowa since October 2024.

He was charged in federal court with fraud and other charges after officials say he illegally obtained employment at the Bread Garden Market by using a false social security number. His federal charges are still being adjudicated, but he was released from U.S. Marshals’ custody on Dec. 23. He was immediately taken into ICE custody, despite immigration officials not having issued him a notice to appear on immigration charges until after he was already in their custody.

On the same day he was taken into ICE custody, Gonzalez Ochoa filed a writ of habeas corpus claiming that ICE did not have authority to take him into custody when they did. A federal judge agreed and issued an order on Jan. 2 that he be granted a bond hearing within seven days. According to Escucha Mi Voz organizers, immigration officials failed to schedule the bond hearing, so Gonzalez Ochoa was released.

He is currently on house arrest, and he spoke in the meeting Saturday via Zoom from his apartment.

“I came to this country to make a better life for my family. I was violently detained by ICE,” Gonzalez Ochoa said at the meeting, through a translator. “I had to fight from jail to be able to return to be with my family again. They tried to tell me many times to sign my deportation order, but I kept fighting from jail.”

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‘It’s not OK to keep quiet anymore’

After Yugar-Cruz and Gonzalez Ochoa spoke, organizers from Escucha Mi Voz provided information about how bystanders can respond when they see ICE officers in their neighborhoods making arrests. Attendees were encouraged to film ICE officers, to ask for their names and badge numbers, to get in the way of arresting officers when possible, but not to touch officers or interfere directly in an arrest.

“I’ve been tear-gassed in St. Paul, Minnesota by riot police. I’ve been pepper-sprayed by the Israeli occupation forces in the West Bank of Palestine, and it was when I was in Colombia helping internally displaced people return to their ancestral homeland that I learned that immigrants can organize themselves, and allies with privilege can put our bodies on the line to stop violence from happening,” Escucha Mi Voz co-director David Goodner told attendees. “That’s what Escucha Mi Voz is about. We just took that same model and brought it here.”

Attendees at the meeting expressed support for Escucha Mi Voz’s work, and frustration with the increased immigration enforcement efforts by the Trump administration.

Sarah Breckner, of Iowa City, said Saturday’s training was the first Escucha Mi Voz event she has attended.

“As a Jewish woman in this community, even as a kid, I felt slightly othered, but I have the protection of having white skin. Knowing that I can … hide behind that has kept me safe, but I never knew I was hiding behind that,” Breckner said. “The past several years have really taught me a lot, and that it’s not OK to keep quiet anymore.”

Ed Flaherty, also of Iowa City, agreed. He said he has attended a few Escucha Mi Voz events in the last year, including a protest this summer at the Iowa City ped mall the day after Gonzalez Ochoa’s arrest.

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“I am a peace advocate,” Flaherty said. “Peace doesn’t exist in a state of injustice.”

Escucha Mi Voz organizers ended the meeting by inviting attendees to travel to Cedar Rapids on Feb. 3 to attend an accompaniment rally outside the Cedar Rapids ICE office, where Gonzalez Ochoa and other immigrants will be attending required check-ins with ICE officials that day, starting at 8 a.m.

“When immigrants go into that office in Cedar Rapids, they don’t go in alone,” Goodner said. “When we do this, we build power, and we can use that power to try to win better policies to try to put people first.”

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