Photo illustration by Iowa Capital Dispatch; jail photo via Google Earth; contract text courtesy of Muscatine County The Muscatine County Jail stands to earn as much as $839,045 under its contract with the federal government to house ICE detainees and others.

The Muscatine County Jail was promised a 75% increase in potential revenue for holding federal immigration detainees during the first year of the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration, newly disclosed records show.

In March 2025, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement amended the federal government’s longstanding contract with Muscatine County for the detention of individuals picked up by the federal government, including those wanted by ICE for potential deportation.

The contract change called for increasing the amount of money the county jail could potentially collect for holding federal detainees by $360,000 — raising the upper limit on federal payouts from $479,045 to $839,045.

The bulk of that increase, $340,000 was allocated to the additional expense of detaining individuals in the jail, while $20,000 of the increase was allocated to transportation services, which typically involves taking inmates to and from federal court.

Like other Iowa counties, Muscatine County has a contract with ICE to house those detainees in return for payments from the federal government. Muscatine County’s detention of the immigrants have been the subject of at least five civil lawsuits and an alleged ethics complaint concerning former Muscatine County Attorney James Barry, who resigned last year.

In January, the Iowa Capital Dispatch filed a formal Open Records Law request with the county sheriff and jail administrator for a copy of county’s contract to hold ICE detainees. Neither the sheriff or the jail administrator ever responded to that request or to follow-up inquiries by email and phone.

In February, County Attorney Korie Talkington responded to a separate request for the same records by asserting the contract was a federal record and would have to be provided by ICE. She later stated that ICE claimed federal law prohibited the records’ disclosure.

This week, Talkington provided the requested records, stating that “ICE has changed their position regarding release of the documents. ICE has retracted their claim that the document is protected by federal law.”

Contract: ‘No public disclosures’ without ICE approval

The records Talkington provided include a 2020 intergovernmental agreement with the U.S. Marshals Service that calls for the federal government to pay the county $85 per day for the detention of each federal inmate, plus $21 an hour for transportation costs.

In addition, the county disclosed a 2022 modification of that agreement, which didn’t alter the amount of money to be paid to the county, but did include a lengthy list of federal expectations related to jail administration, inmate medical services and inmate rights.

In March 2025, the original 2020 contract was amended to essentially raise the cap on the amount of federal payouts made to the county under the 2020 contract.

The 2025 amendment states that from April 2025 through March 2026 – a period in which immigration detentions have increased significantly under a federal crackdown on immigration – the upper limit on federal payouts to the county would be raised from $479,045 to $839,045, an increase of just over 75%.

The amendment stipulates the jail is only obligated to provide inmate beds and transportation “to the point that does not exceed the total amount currently allotted” under the new contract terms.

The 2025 amendment also stipulates that “there shall be no public disclosures regarding this agreement” by the county or any subcontractors “without review and approval of such disclosure by ICE.”