Two more immigrant truck drivers picked up by the Iowa State Patrol and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers along Interstate 80 are suing the federal government.
Court records indicate the Iowa State Patrol and ICE are participating in a national immigration enforcement effort called “Operation ICE Wall,” in part by stopping commercial truck drivers at interstate weigh stations.
Typically, the state troopers will pull over the drivers who bypass the weigh station, issue a citation and then direct the drivers back to the weigh station, where ICE officers will arrest and detain them. Some of those arrests have led to federal lawsuits alleging the due process rights of the detainees are being violated.
Two of the most recent cases involve drivers from India and Pakistan, both of whom were picked up and jailed in Iowa despite having authorization to work in the U.S. and having pending applications for asylum.
Court records show that Syed Abbas of Port Jefferson Station, New York, came to the U.S. without authorization in June 2023, was released by immigration authorities, and in 2024 was granted work authorization.
According to court filings by ICE Deportation Officer Dan Archer, Abbas and a coworker were traveling through Iowa in a commercial truck on March 4, 2026, when the coworker, who was driving, failed to stop at a Dallas County weigh station along Interstate 80.
The Iowa State Patrol pulled over the vehicle and although Abbas was not the driver, officers checked his immigration status and allegedly concluded he was in the U.S. without authorization and was subject to immediate detention. He was then transferred to the Polk County Jail, which is paid by ICE to house some of Iowa’s immigration detainees.
Abbas now has an Immigration Court hearing scheduled for April 9. However, his attorney has taken ICE, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Polk County to U.S. District Court over the matter, arguing federal officials violated Abbas’ due process rights when they “revoked his liberty without notice, without a hearing and without any individualized justification.”
That case is still pending in U.S. District Court.
Two drivers from India arrested on the same day
The second case involves truck driver Jagdish Singh, 29, who came to the U.S. without authorization from India in September 2019. He was detained at the time, then released on a $25,000 bond, was subsequently granted work authorization, and applied for asylum.
On. Feb. 11, 2026, Singh was driving a commercial truck through Iowa when he allegedly failed to stop at an Interstate 80 weigh station near Mitchellville.
According to recent court filings by ICE Deportation Officer Daniel Newby, Singh was pulled over by the Iowa State Patrol and ticketed for bypassing the weigh station, driving without proof of periodic inspections, improper display of license plates and maintaining a false report of a driving record.
“During this stop, an ICE officer at the scene conducted a check of immigration records and learned [Singh] is a citizen and national of India who entered the country illegally and had not been granted legal status,” Newby stated in court filings, adding that officers then arrested Singh and had him placed in the Hardin County Jail, where he remains.
Newby acknowledged immigration officials had released Singh in 2019 upon payment of the $25,000 bond.
Singh’s attorney is now seeking his client’s immediate release from jail, arguing his arrest is in violation of the court’s 2019 bond order.
Although ICE officials say Singh is being held in the Hardin County Jail, the lawsuit filed by Singh’s attorney in U.S. District Court alleges he is being held in the Polk County Jail and names Polk County as a respondent in the case.
Court records show Singh was one of at least two truck drivers from India who was pulled over and detained on Feb. 11, 2026 — the other being Suraj Vasal, who four years ago came to the U.S. from India seeking asylum.
Vasal was driving a commercial semitruck on Interstate 80 in Iowa when he was pulled over by Iowa State Patrol Trooper Nathaniel Rippey for bypassing a weigh station. ICE officers then took custody of Vasal and transferred him to the Polk County Jail. Attorneys for Vasal are now seeking his immediate release from jail.