IOWA CITY, Iowa (KCRG) - The worker detained by ICE agents at Bread Garden Market in Iowa City has been freed, according to the Iowa City Catholic Worker House. Jorge Elieser Gonzalez Ochoa was arrested by ICE during his shift at the Bread Garden Market on September 25. In a post on Facebook, the group said, “After months of detention and community pressure following his abduction at Bread Garden Market, Jorge Elieser González Ochoa is home. They took Jorge. We took him back!” Video of his arrest showed ICE agents, in plainclothes, taking Gonzalez to the ground in front of customers and coworkers. He is then loaded into a van and taken away.Gonzalez Ochoa was indicted on three counts by a grand jury in October. In a statement, Escucha Mi Voz Iowa organizer Alejandra Escobar said, “Jorge’s release is a huge victory for our community — and it happened because people organized. He was detained in public, separated from his family, and today he is home because neighbors, faith leaders, workers, attorneys and everyday Iowans refused to stay silent. This didn’t happen quietly behind closed doors — it happened because people showed up, made calls, packed courtrooms, held rallies, and demanded justice.“Jorge’s case isn’t an exception — it’s what families all across Iowa are facing right now. People are being detained at work, at probation appointments, at ICE check-ins — a system designed to isolate people so no one notices when they disappear. Jorge broke through that isolation because his community stood with him. And this win comes just days after ICE killed a legal observer in Minneapolis — so this isn’t just good news, it’s proof that resistance saves lives. People needed a win. Jorge being home is a message to so of us: this system can be challenged. When we fight we win. This is why we organize — not just to protest, but to bring people home. And we will keep standing together until no one in Iowa is taken, silenced, or disappeared by ICE ever again.”Copyright 2026 KCRG. All rights reserved.