AG Bird drops suit to defund Winneshiek Sheriff

The Iowa Attorney General is dropping her lawsuit against the Winneshiek County Sheriff over a social media post. Bird says the county is in “full compliance,” though she never got the apology she attempted to compel from the sheriff.

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird quietly dismissed her high-profile lawsuit against Winneshiek County Sheriff Dan Marx. In a release from last Friday’s news dump, she said the county “now fully complies” with state immigration law.

“Given that Winneshiek County has now fully complied with 27A, the state law prohibiting sanctuary cities and counties from receiving taxpayer funds, the state is dismissing the lawsuit to enforce 27A,” said Attorney General Bird. “Winneshiek County and Sheriff Marx are in compliance with 27A. They have committed to continue to honor ICE detainers and cooperate with federal immigration authorities.”

Bird’s announcement offered no details about what Marx did to suddenly satisfy her office, marking an abrupt end to a months-long legal battle that threatened to strip the rural county of all state funding. 

Iowa Starting Line asked Bird’s office to elaborate on what had changed since Gov. Kim Reynolds’ complaint kicked off Bird’s lawsuit. A spokesperson replied, “The AG’s office has no further comment.”

The dispute started in February when Marx posted on Facebook that his deputies wouldn’t help federal immigration agents with requests he considered unconstitutional. Marx argued that ICE detainer requests — which ask local jails to hold people for up to 48 hours without warrants — violated Fourth and Sixth Amendment protections.

After Reynolds complained, Bird launched an investigation and sued Marx in March, demanding he comply with Iowa’s “sanctuary county” law. But the case took a strange turn when Bird’s office found Marx was actually following the law and honoring ICE detainers all along. The Winneshiek County Sheriff’s Office deleted the original post.

READ – The full text of Sheriff Dan Marx’s Facebook post about immigration detainers can be read here.

Despite removing the post, Bird continued the lawsuit because Marx refused to post an apology that her office had written for him.

Winneshiek County Republican Party Co-Chair Thomas Hansen told Iowa Starting Line that he believed the lawsuit was state government overarching locals.

“I think it’s an attempt to take away the last vestige of some of the protections that ‘We the people’ have in having an elected sheriff that is beholden to nobody but us,” Hansen said. “If he goes out breaking the law, he gets prosecuted like everybody else. But when it comes to protecting our constitutional rights and liberties, the county sheriffs are kind of a wall between ‘We the people’ and an overbearing government.”

WATCH – Hansen shared his thoughts on Bird’s lawsuit on Cornhole Champions.

The standoff sparked rare bipartisan support for Marx in his home county. KGAN reported about 100 residents picketed Bird’s visit to Decorah on Monday, with both Democrats and Republicans backing the sheriff’s right to free speech.

In his statement Friday, Marx said he explained to Bird that “it was never my intent to discourage immigration enforcement” and that his office “will continue to comply with Iowa code section 27A.”

Iowa Code Section 27A is the state’s “sanctuary county” law that prohibits local governments from receiving state funding if they discourage cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. The law specifically bars counties from enacting policies that would discourage immigration enforcement.

Marx’s February Facebook post stated his office would “make every effort to block, interfere and interrupt” federal immigration actions if agents used what he considered unconstitutional paperwork instead of proper warrants. Bird argued this language discouraged immigration enforcement, making Winneshiek County ineligible for state funding under 27A. 

However, Bird’s own investigation found that Marx was actually honoring ICE detainers and cooperating with federal authorities in practice—suggesting the violation was about the messaging in his post, not his actual enforcement policies.

Zachary Oren Smith writes about politics for Iowa Starting Line. He’s the host of weekly Iowa news podcast Cornhole Champions. Subscribe to get the show and newsletter right when it drops Wednesday mornings. 

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