ICE

Iowa jail projects $2.3M increase from ICE detainees

Woodbury County officials say federal housing agreements are generating millions more than originally budgeted

February 09, 2026 03:53 PM

By Caitlin Yamada
Sioux City Journal, Iowa

SIOUX CITY, Iowa — The Woodbury County Sheriff’s Office expects a large increase in revenue from housing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement inmates in the next fiscal year.

During a Woodbury County Board of Supervisors budget hearing on Friday, Sheriff Chad Sheehan asked the county to increase the budgeted revenues from housing ICE inmates for the 2026-27 budget year to $2.3 million.

The originally proposed $500,000 budget was already a significant increase from the $3,000 budgeted for the 2025-26 budget.

The county has agreements with various federal agencies to house their inmates in the new Woodbury County Law Enforcement Center . The county is also budgeting for $4.2 million in revenues from the U.S. Marshals Service. Sheehan did not request an increase in the Marshal Service budget line.

Woodbury County Budget Director Ryan Ericson said the revenues are based on an average rate of $125 per day, per inmate.

So far, in the 2025-26 fiscal year, the county has collected $918,021 in revenues from housing ICE inmates, more than double the $417,228 received during the previous year. The county budgeted only $3,000 in ICE revenues in 2025-26 budget. At the time of budgeting in 2025, the county had only brought in a little over $3,000 in revenue.

To date, the county also has received $1.5 million in revenues from the U.S. Marshals. A total of $4.25 million was budgeted for housing those inmates in the budget that ends July 1.

Since the new jail opened in September 2024, Sheehan said the department has been slowly increasing the number of federal inmates they house. The 2025-26 budget is the first full year of operations.

Sheehan, during a Law Enforcement Center Authority meeting, said they are prepared to take on more inmates but are waiting on the U.S. Marshals Service to coordinate an increase.

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Sheehan did not offer any additional information for the increase in budgeted revenues.

Sheehan also told the supervisors the county might need to increase the budget for sheriff’s transport expenses, due to the increased number of federal inmates. Currently, that budget totals $1.1 million, which largely reflects employee salaries.

He said the transport officer’s work has tripled due to the increased federal inmates, requiring the officers to make trips to the federal courthouse in downtown Sioux City two to three times a day.

“It’s only 40 minutes round trip, but they didn’t do that previously, so that 40-minute round trip two or three times a day, they’re not able to do the trips to the doctor’s office, to the dentist, all the things they normally would do and all of those things have increased because of the increased number of people in the jail,” Sheehan said.

The sheriff’s office is currently looking at whether to hire 4.5 part-time employees such as off-duty or retired officers, or to add one or two full time staff members.

The county is paid for the transportation work conducted for federal inmates. Sheehan said year-to-date the county has billed $104,000 to the federal contracts for transportation.

Sheehan also asked the board of supervisors to consider how many federal inmates they would like the county jail to house based on current staffing. He currently believes they can manage between 125 and 150 federal inmates at a time.

“Are you satisfied with that, do you want it to be incrementally increased by 20 or 25 or 40 or 50,” Sheehan said. “I think we can probably only comfortably go to maybe 190, 200 roughly, but that would certainly require more staffing.”

He estimates it would require eight more correctional officers per 25 more inmates. He said currently, the department is happy with where it is but would also be happy to try to hire more staff and increase the number and therefore increase the revenues, he said.

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