Judge gives feds one week to explain ICE’s detention of Guatemalan man

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.

According to the lawsuit, on Oct. 28, 2026, ICE officers were attempting to locate and arrest a different individual when they instead arrested Perez Recinos because “he matched the profile of the wanted person.”

The lawsuit alleges the ICE officers detained Perez Recinos, then subjected him to “extensive questioning,” and then obtained an administrative warrant to detain him. In effect, the lawsuit claims, ICE had already arrested Perez Recinos before it obtained the warrant.

“(Perez Recinos) has not engaged in criminal misconduct or wrongdoing,” the lawsuit states. “He was simply living his life when (ICE) picked him up off the street. He never should have been arrested.”

The lawsuit seeks to have a U.S. District Court judge assume jurisdiction in the matter, order that Perez Recinos not be moved out of the Southern District of Iowa, and order either his immediate release or a bond hearing at which the government will bear the burden of showing that Perez Recinos is either a flight risk or a danger to the community.

On Nov. 9, 2026, Chief Judge Stephanie M. Rose issued an order giving the U.S. Department of Justice until Nov. 16, 2026, to respond to the lawsuit and file a memo with the court explaining the factual and legal grounds for its position in the matter.

The U.S. Department of Justice, which does not comment on pending litigation, has yet to file its response.