Immigration group files civil rights complaint against state patrol over traffic stop near Dubuque

Escucha Mi Voz, an Iowa City nonprofit that works with immigrants filed a civil rights complaint Friday against the Iowa State Patrol and Customs Enforcement after seven construction workers were stopped while driving home from Dubuque last week. According to the complaint, Iowa State Patrol Trooper Devon Baumgartner stopped a car on Highway 151 outside of Dubuque April 18 after following it for about 15 minutes. There were seven Latino immigrants with no criminal background in the car. Four were able to provide their ID’s. Two individuals were detained in the squad car for 30 and 15 minutes during the stop. No interpreter was provided. The driver was issued a ticket and a warning, more than 30 minutes before the traffic stop ended. Following the stop, Escucha Mi Voz is demanding the traffic stop be fully investigated, publicly release the names of the State Patrol troopers that are part of an ICE taskforce, suspend immigration enforcement against the seven people from the traffic stop, and a termination of 287(g) agreement between the Department of Public Safety and ICE which created a task force that gives three State Patrol troopers authority to perform some immigration-related law enforcement.