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Pottawattamie County Jail — Council Bluffs ICE holding site, Operation ICE Wall litigation

Pottawattamie County, IA FIPS 19155
unknown
Bed capacity
Operator: Pottawattamie County Sheriff

Overview

Pottawattamie County Jail in Council Bluffs (western Iowa, across the Missouri River from Omaha) is listed by ICE as a detention facility and holds ICE detainees alongside its general population. It surfaced publicly in April 2026 as the latest Iowa county jail named in the wave of detainee due-process lawsuits tied to DHS’s July 2025 “mandatory detention” theory and to Operation ICE Wall arrests along I-80.

Key Details

  • Location: Council Bluffs, Pottawattamie County, IA (FIPS 19155)
  • Operator: Pottawattamie County Sheriff
  • Role: Listed on ICE.gov as a detention facility; holds ICE/DHS detainees in addition to county and federal inmates
  • Litigation (NEW): Usiel Sanchez Romero, an Omaha resident, was subjected to what his suit calls “a random and unjustified traffic stop” on March 21, 2026, detained by ICE, and held at Pottawattamie County Jail without a bond hearing. He entered the US without authorization in 2013, has no criminal record, is married with an 8-year-old child, and has run a contracting business for seven years. By April 13, 2026 he had sued DHS and Pottawattamie County in U.S. District Court seeking release or a bond hearing; DOJ had not yet responded.
  • Context: Romero’s case is part of the same litigation cluster as Polk, Woodbury, and Muscatine county detainees, all challenging indefinite no-bond detention.

Why It Matters

Pottawattamie joins Polk, Woodbury, and Muscatine as Iowa county jails now defendants in detainee due-process suits, showing the geographic spread of ICE’s reliance on local jails and the systemic pattern of holding people without bond hearings. Its location on the Omaha metro border makes it a holding point for arrests sweeping up Nebraska-area residents as well as Operation ICE Wall I-80 stops.

Sources

Edit Report issue County profile
Last updated: May 29, 2026