Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird has dismissed her department’s lawsuit against Winneshiek County Sheriff Dan Marx.
Bird initially filed the lawsuit in March after Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds lodged a complaint to a February 4th Facebook post by Marx in which he said his office won’t assist federal agents if their ICE immigration detainers requests aren’t “within constitutional parameters.”
Bird acknowledged that Marx, in fact, had followed state law and complied with all detainer requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement prior to the social media post. However, she argued that Marx’s message suggested otherwise, which is in violation of state law.
Bird gave Marx a deadline to take down his Facebook post and replace it with a post written by her or face a lawsuit. Bird and Reynolds also threatened to withhold state funding from Winneshiek County. While Marx’s post was removed, it was not replaced with Bird’s post.
The lawsuit aimed to enforce the state law prohibiting sanctuary cities and counties from receiving taxpayer funds. In announcing her dismissal of the lawsuit, Bird said, “Given that Winneshiek County has now fully complied with 27A, the state is dismissing the lawsuit to enforce 27A.”
She added that the county and Sheriff Marx have committed to honoring ICE detainers and cooperating with federal immigration authorities.
Marx also released a statement, “Recently I had a face-to-face meeting with Attorney General Bird. I explained it was never my intent to discourage immigration enforcement. We have always complied with ICE detainers and will continue to comply with Iowa code section 27A and encourage immigration enforcement under our written policies. Attorney General Bird has informed Winneshiek County that the lawsuit is no longer necessary given compliance with Iowa code section 27A.”
Marx also thanked the people of Winneshiek County for their patience and outpouring of support through this situation.
