(Iowa Capital Dispatch) – Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird is continuing to pursue a lawsuit against Winneshiek County and its sheriff, Dan Marx, for allegedly violating Iowa law by discouraging law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration officials. In her latest court filings, Bird has criticized Marx, alleging the sheriff has, in essence, asserted that “federal immigration officials should not be trusted.” Bird has also signaled that even if Marx were to comply with her demand that he disavow his past statements, the state is still obligated to strip Winneshiek County of funding, at least temporarily, based on those previous statements.

The lawsuit, filed in March in Polk County District Court, claims that Iowa law “requires stripping Winneshiek County of state funding until the sheriff follows the procedure to reinstate the funds” by disavowing his previous public statements on immigration enforcement.

The lawsuit stems from a Feb. 4, 2025, Facebook post in which, Marx, a Republican, stated that if his office received “detainer” requests to hold immigrants suspected of lacking legal status, and those requests were not vetted and approved by the courts, they would be rejected by his office.

In his post, Marx distinguished between detainer requests of that kind and what he called “valid” judicial warrants and court orders. He wrote that “the only reason detainers are issued is because the federal agency does not have enough information or has not taken the time to obtain a valid judicial warrant.”

In recent court filings, Bird claims that assertion by Marx is false, but that even if it were true, that’s not a defense since Iowa Code Chapter 27A clearly prohibits Iowa law enforcement officers from discouraging cooperation with federal immigration authorities. Before filing the lawsuit, Bird provided Marx with specific language to include in a public statement disavowing his Facebook post, written in the first-person to appear over Marx’s signature. Although Marx’s office deleted the Facebook post, Marx did not publish the statement authored by Bird, who then sued, seeking a court order declaring Winneshiek County to be ineligible to receive any state funds.

Bird is now contesting Marx’s request that the court dismiss the case.Bird also argues that even if Marx were to fully comply now with her request to disavow his previous statements, Iowa law still requires the state to temporarily strip Winneshiek County of state funding. In response to the lawsuit, Marx and Winneshiek County have each asked to be removed from the case, prompting the attorney general to characterize the county’s request as “odd” given the amount of money that’s at stake.

A hearing date on all of the motions now before the court has yet to be scheduled. A status conference on the case is scheduled for Friday, June 13.