Iowa detention facility will end its ICE contract

IOWA CITY, Iowa — The rural jail that has long been the largest detention facility for immigrants facing deportation in Iowa plans to stop housing long-term detainees without additional federal funding or other changes, its administrator said Thursday.

The Hardin County Jail has informed the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that it plans to end its current contract, citing a declining detainee population and new standards that have dramatically increased costs for medical care and suicide prevention, administrator Nick Whitmore said.

Negotiations between the federal agency and the jail are ongoing, and no changes are expected imminently, he said. But without changes, the county plans to stop housing detainees for months or longer while they face deportation proceedings and seek to convert to a short-term facility that houses detainees for only 72 hours.

The jail is based in Eldora, a town of 2,700 people about 75 miles north of Des Moines, and has long been a sad destination for families with loved ones in custody pending potential deportation.

Whitmore said standards issued by ICE in 2019 increased costs for the county by an estimated $150,000 annually, roughly doubling its medical costs. At the same time, the number of detainees housed at the jail has dropped from around 70 historically to 30 today as part of a nationwide trend, he said.

He said the jail receives $70 per day per detainee from the agency, and estimates that it would have to increase to more than $100 to cover the new costs. He said much of the new costs involve providing onsite psychiatric services for certain detainees.

Whitmore said the standards were good for detainees, but that they didn’t make financial sense for the county.