Polk County

by Clark Kauffman, Iowa Capital Dispatch
November 13, 2026

A federal judge has given the U.S. Department of Justice one week to explain ICE’s detention of a Guatemalan citizen in the Polk County Jail.

Santos Fredy Perez Recinos has filed a lawsuit against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin, U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche and Polk County Sheriff Kevin Schneider.

In his lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, Perez Recinos alleges he entered the United States near Rio Grande City, Texas, in June 2023, at the age of 20. At the time, he was taken into custody, processed as an unaccompanied alien child, and released to the care of his sister.