(An article by Clark Kauffman, Iowa Capital Dispatch) – A convicted child-killer serving a life sentence in an Iowa prison is suing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, insisting that he be deported to Mexico for having come to the United States illegally in the 1990s. The lawsuit, filed Thursday by prison inmate Juan Ledesma, seeks a court order that will force Homeland Security agents “to come to Anamosa State Penitentiary and take custody” of Ledesma and send him back to Mexico, his country of origin.

Anamosa State Penitentiary

In August 1997, Ledesma was convicted of first-degree murder in the death of Karen Jasmen Orozco, an infant who lived with her mother, Mirta Medina, and Ledesma in their western Iowa home. Court testimony indicated Ledesma was home alone with the child on Jan. 28, 1997, while Medina was out looking for a job. When Medina arrived home, she found the child vomiting and having seizures in her crib.

Ledesma, who worked a night shift at a meatpacking plant, allegedly told authorities he didn’t intend to hurt the child, but she kept waking him as he tried to sleep. Iowa’s state medical examiner at the time, Thomas Bennett, attributed the child’s subsequent death to shaken baby syndrome, although the defense’s medical expert, Dr. John Plunkett, testified at Ledesma’s criminal trial that the death could have been caused by a 3-foot fall that may have occurred several days prior to the child’s death.

Ledesma was convicted of first-degree murder, child endangerment, neglect of a dependent individual and assault causing serious and willful injury. He was later sentenced to life in prison. Court records indicate that over the past 28 years, Ledesma has filed at least five applications for post-conviction relief, most recently in 2023, and that all of the applications have been denied.

Ledesma, 52, is now suing the U.S. Department of Justice, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa. The lawsuit argues that ICE and Homeland Security have a “duty” to deport him in compliance with directives from President Donald Trump to deport all “illegal aliens.”

Ledesma also argues that he has been declared a “burden to the American taxpayers by the Trump administration,” and that his ongoing health problems are only going to increase the financial burden associated with his continued incarceration. “By returning the petitioner back to his country of origin, costs to American taxpayers can be focused on lawful citizens,” the lawsuit alleges, adding that Ledesma “has the right to be deported from the United States under federal law and not be further detained without due process.”

Ledesma is representing himself in the case. The federal government has yet to file a response to the lawsuit.