Hunter
03/22/26
An Iowa judge has criticized federal officials for refusing to release an immigrant from the Muscatine County Jail without a court order.
Iowa Capitol Dispatch reports US District Judge Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger tols the US Department of Justice that it was “untenable that federal officials refuse to meet their obligations to follow the law” by knowingly incarcerating a man in violation of his due process rights.
The case involves Andrei Bankevich of Minneapolis, who came to America to seek asylum from prosecution in 2021 from Belarus due to his politics.
Bankevich was arrested on an OWI charge in February 2025 and eventually turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He remained jailed in Minnesota until an ICE operation in Minneapolis caused jails and detention centers to be filled up, and Bankevich was transferred on December 3rd to the Muscatine County Jail.
His Iowa attorney sought relief from the courts earlier this month, noting that Bankevich had been incarcerated for over a year, in violation of a federal law that says someone subject to a final order of deportation can’t be incarcerated for more than six months.
The government responded by saying that ICE officials had been working on a third-country removal for Bankevich since September and conceded that he was being detained illegally. However, they said they wouldn’t release him without a court order.
In her ruling, Judge Goodgame Ebinger called out the Department of Justice for failing to follow the law without a specific judical mandate to do so. She also said she would entertain motions from Bankevich’s attorney to have the government pay his legal fees and associated costs in the matter.
The full article from Iowa Capital Dispatch is available below.