{"id":6701,"date":"2026-04-04T13:38:49","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T13:38:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/04\/04\/judge-criticizes-government-immigration-judge-for-bad-faith-actions-the-des-moines-register\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T13:38:49","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T13:38:49","slug":"judge-criticizes-government-immigration-judge-for-bad-faith-actions-the-des-moines-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/04\/04\/judge-criticizes-government-immigration-judge-for-bad-faith-actions-the-des-moines-register\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge criticizes government, immigration judge for \u2018bad faith\u2019 actions – The Des Moines Register"},"content":{"rendered":"

A federal judge has taken the government to task over its attempts to detain and deport a truck driver who was arrested in a joint immigration enforcement effort conducted by ICE and the Iowa State Patrol.
The case involves Suraj Vasal<\/a>, who four years ago came to the United States from India seeking asylum and was then released on his own recognizance.\u00a0On Feb. 11, 2026, Vasal was driving a commercial semitruck on Interstate 80 in Iowa when he failed to stop at a weigh station. Iowa State Patrol Trooper Nathaniel Rippey ticketed Vasal, after which Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers took custody of Vasal and transferred him to the Polk County Jail.
Court records indicate the Iowa State Patrol and ICE are waging an immigration enforcement effort called \u201cOperation ICE Wall,\u201d in part by stopping commercial truck drivers at interstate weigh stations in Iowa.
Vasal\u2019s attorney, Alexander Smith, has taken ICE, the Department of Homeland Security and Polk County Jail Administrator Cory Williams to court over the matter. The U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office says it had a valid warrant to detain Vasal based on the criminal act of failing to stop at the weigh station.
Initially, Vasal was denied a bond hearing, with the Omaha immigration court relying on the Trump administration\u2019s position that people who have lived in the United States for months or years are subject to the same sort of \u201cmandatory detention\u201d faced by people who are apprehended at the border.
On Feb. 24, 2026, U.S. District Judge Stephen H. Locher gave the immigration court seven days in which to provide Vasal with a hearing where he could make his case for release on bond while his deportation case is pending.
On Feb. 27, ICE agents approached Vasal in his jail cell at 10 a.m. and told him that he was to appear, via Zoom, for a hearing of some kind in 30 minutes. Vasal participated in the hearing, which turned out to be the court-ordered bond hearing he was initially denied.
At the hearing, Vasal asked for more time so he could arrange for legal representation. The court denied the request and proceeded with the hearing, at which ICE officials argued that Vasal\u2019s failure to stop at the weigh station suggested he was both a flight risk and a danger to the community.\u00a0The immigration judge concluded he was a flight risk and denied him bond.
Smith went back to district court<\/a>, arguing that ICE and the immigration court had engaged in \u201cmalicious compliance\u201d with Locher\u2019s Feb. 24 order.
\u201cThe (government\u2019s) \u2018bond hearing\u2019 was a sham imposed on Mr. Vasal with no notice and no reasonable opportunity to retain an attorney or prepare for his bond hearing,\u201d Smith argued in court filings.
The U.S. Department of Justice, representing ICE and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, argued the hearing had to proceed at the designated time or the immigration judge, who had a crowded docket of cases, risked violating Locher\u2019s order to hold the hearing within seven days.
In a sharply worded March 24 ruling, Locher rejected the DOJ\u2019s argument and ruled Vasal\u2019s rights were violated by the actions of both Homeland Security and the immigration judge.
The government\u2019s actions, Locher said, \u201ctest the border of bad faith.\u201d In essence, he stated, the government\u2019s \u201cposition is that it is acceptable to force a pro se party to participate in a hearing where his liberty is on the line with, at most, 30 minutes\u2019 notice. The timing made it impossible for (Vasal) to marshal evidence in his defense, such as evidence of work authorization, information from his employer, testimony or letters of support from friends and family members, and evidence of his living situation. This is a denial of the basic due process rights.\u201d
The immigration judge, Locher ruled, \u201calso appears to have violated (Vasal\u2019s) statutory right to counsel by refusing to continue the hearing \u2026 To make matters worse, it appears that the immigration judge \u2014 with (the government\u2019s) full support \u2014 is trying to blame this court for what happened.\u201d
Locher labeled as \u201cfrivolous\u201d the government\u2019s claim that the immigration judge had to proceed with the hearing or risk missing the seven-day deadline.
\u201cThere is no reason why this particular immigration judge had to handle the bond hearing,\u201d Locher wrote. \u201cIf her schedule was too crowded to allow it to occur within the seven-day period while still preserving (Vasal\u2019s) rights to counsel and due process, she should have transferred the case to a different immigration judge.\u201d
Locher added that \u201cit bears mentioning, in any event, that any shortage in resources is (the government\u2019s) own fault for undertaking aggressive immigration enforcement efforts without sufficient preparation or infrastructure to ensure the protection of due process rights.\u201d
He added that \u201cthe only thing the immigration judge should not<\/em> have done is plow forward with the hearing on Feb. 27, 2026, in violation of (Vasal\u2019s) rights. And yet this is what happened.\u201d
Locher also questioned the immigration judge\u2019s decision to deny Vasal bond at the conclusion of the hearing, noting that Vasal \u201chas a job, pays his taxes, has a pending asylum case, and has no criminal history other than a traffic violation. It is difficult to see how the immigration judge could have concluded in these circumstances that he is a flight risk.\u201d
Locher ordered that another bond hearing be held within seven days, and that the case be heard by a different judge than the one who handled the matter on Feb. 27, and that Vasal be given at least 48 hours\u2019 notice of the hearing.
The day after that decision, however, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that not all ICE detainees who have been in the United States for months or years are automatically entitled to a bond hearing.
Locher withdrew his order for a new bond hearing, but then gave Smith, Vasal\u2019s attorney, an opportunity to argue why a bond hearing was warranted in this specific case.
In response, Smith filed a motion this week seeking his client\u2019s immediate release.
\u201cHuman beings are entitled to some due process before they are caged,\u201d Smith told the court. \u201cPeople who have only committed a traffic violation do not deserve months of confinement. The court should order the immediate release of Suraj Vasal or, at the very least, continue to enforce its judgment that he must receive a new bond hearing.\u201d
Locher has yet to rule on the matter.
Find\u00a0this story<\/a>\u00a0at\u00a0Iowa Capital Dispatch<\/a>, which is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.\u00a0Iowa Capital Dispatch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kathie Obradovich for questions:\u00a0kobradovich@iowacapitaldispatch.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A federal judge has taken the government to task over its attempts to detain and deport a truck driver who was arrested in a joint immigration enforcement effort conducted by ICE and the Iowa State Patrol.The case involves Suraj Vasal, who four years ago came to the United States from India seeking asylum and was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6702,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6701","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}