A 23-year-old Iowa man who has lived in the United States since he was a year old was detained by federal immigration agents and jailed in Muscatine County while being unlawfully denied a bond hearing, a federal judge has ruled.
The ruling comes in a civil case where the federal government’s efforts to hire “deportation judges” — normally referred to as immigration judges — is alleged by the plaintiff to be part of an effort to hire judges whose views align with President Donald Trump’s political goals.
The case involves Giovanni Uribe-Gonzalez, 23, of Hawkeye, who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in November 2025 after a drunken driving arrest and then placed in the Muscatine County Jail pending possible deportation.
According to court filings by Uribe-Gonzalez’s attorney, Amy Cummings, he was brought to the United States by his mother when he was 1 year old.
“As toddler, he took his first steps on Iowa soil, and he learned to read and write in Iowa classrooms where he was always liked by his peers and teachers. He recited the Pledge of Allegiance each morning and cheered the fireworks every Fourth of July,” Cummings told a federal judge last month. “His every recollection and dream starts and ends in the Hawkeye state, and his identity, values and culture were forged here shaping him into a quintessential American Midwesterner.”
Cummings told the court that in 2021 Uribe-Gonzalez’s family had saved enough money to pay his $495 filing fee for citizenship under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Act (DACA). While the government accepted the fee, Cummings alleged, it never fully processed his application and that matter is still pending with no final action taken.
After graduating from West Central High School in Maynard, Uribe-Gonzalez enrolled in a training program for railroad welders, earned his certification, applied for jobs and was then rejected due to his citizenship status. In 2025, he was twice arrested for drunken driving, with both arrests resulting in a conviction on a charge of first-offense drunken driving.
Court records show that after his second arrest in November, he was detained Chickasaw County, where ICE placed a hold on him, preventing his release although an Iowa judge had allowed him to post bond.
According to the court records, David Bindert, an Iowa-based deportation officer with ICE, noted in his written report of the detention that Uribe-Gonzalez had a DACA application pending, but added that Uribe-Gonzalez had “no legal presence in the United States” and was subject to being detained by ICE.
Uribe-Gonzalez was then taken to the Muscatine County Jail for holding, and ICE initiated deportation proceedings.
Attorney cites ad for ‘deportation judges’
As with thousands of other ICE detainees across the country in 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice took the position that the federal law providing for the mandatory detention of detainees applies not just to people who apprehended at the border — which is how the law has been interpreted and applied for decades — but also to people who may have entered the country illegally months or years earlier.
The DOJ’s new mandatory-detention stance has resulted in immigration judges across the country denying detainees the opportunity to argue for release on bond while their case is pending.
Since July 2025, more than 300 U.S. District Court judges in 1,600 cases have rejected that argument, finding the new interpretation of the law is contrary to ICE’s own regulations, its published enforcement guidelines, previous court rulings, and “the overall logic” of the nation’s immigration system.
Despite those rulings, ICE and county jails in Iowa and the rest of the country have continued to hold individuals for indefinite periods without affording them the opportunity to argue for their release on bond. The cases where those practices have been rejected are those in which the detainees have taken their case to U.S. District Court and argued their due process rights are being violated.
On Dec. 16, 2025, Cummings filed such a lawsuit on behalf of Uribe-Gonzalez in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, naming President Trump, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and others as the respondents.
As part of her petition seeking a bond hearing for her client, Cummings noted that the federal government has fired dozens of immigration judges and then advertised for “deportation judges” that Cummings argues are intended to “better align” with Trump’s political goals.
As an exhibit in her case, she submitted a copy of the federal government’s written solicitation for applicants for the position of “deportation judge.”
The solicitation says: “YOU BE THE JUDGE. Help write the next chapter of America. Apply today to become a deportation judge and you may be entitled to these benefits: $159,951 to $207,500 per year… DEFINE AMERICA FOR GENERATIONS… Preside over cases in federal Immigration Court and determine whether an alien has to leave the United States or gets to stay. Make decisions with generational consequences… Restore integrity and honor to our Nation’s Immigration Court system.”
Recently, U.S. District Judge Stephen Locher ruled in Uribe-Gonzalez’s favor on the bond-hearing issue, noting that district courts across the nation have ruled that such detainees are entitled to a hearing at which they can argue for their release.
The available court records don’t indicate whether such a hearing has been held.
