Letter to the Editor - Our Town Can Do the Same

Our newsroom runs on more than coffee and craft beer — it runs on you. Support Decorah News' local reporting today. To the Editor, Decorah Community for Immigrant Rights (DCIR) has spent a year working on a separation ordinance, and on Tuesday, June 16, we have an opportunity to discuss it as a community with the Human Rights Commission. This policy targets the point where police and jail custody becomes deportation. It adds basic protections: notification of rights, limits on information collection, and prohibits direct hand-offs to ICE. My brother works as a legal expert witness alongside public defenders. Through him, I see how easily situations are misread and how bias — even unintentional — harms Black and Brown communities in the legal system. In Iowa, those harms feed a jail-to-deportation pipeline: 85% of our ICE arrests come from local jails. Our state is a leader nationally in weaponizing police and prisons this way. Some worry a separation ordinance might break state law, opening up an opportunity to target Decorah's funding or its immigrant population. But Winneshiek County has already weathered a similar legal challenge through Sheriff Marx that didn't result in an uptick of ICE agents here. Sheriff Marx was able to fight the charges in part by documenting that he "has complied with every Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer request made of his office since Nov. 26, 2018." What if this time we challenged the law using something other than our own compliance record? Iowa's home rule authority gives cities the power to add local safeguards unless the state explicitly forbids them. The ordinance doesn't end all contact with ICE, but sets clear rules and transparency around it. And it does draw hard lines: no voluntary hand-offs, no helping ICE take custody of someone we'd otherwise release. Some legal experts believe we can defend that. By doing so, we could pave the path for other Iowa cities with even larger vulnerable populations to enact their own policies. As an educator, I live with the daily awareness that racial bias and ableism shape how my students are seen and treated. I have seen how schools that adopt protective policies — accommodations, limits on suspensions — can interrupt those patterns. Our town can do the same: codifying care for immigrants into a policy that limits how ICE exploits our police, our jail, our tax dollars, and our community. I (and others) have faced pushback for supporting this ordinance, but I believe it's common-sense human rights protection. I hope the community shows up to listen, to speak up, to learn, and to envision ways our laws can reflect our values. Join us June 16 at 6 p.m. at City Hall. Rachael ButtonDecorah, Iowa Be the first to know! Sign up for the free newsletter and unlock exclusive updates, breaking news, and tips from around the community.