T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa), left, and her press secretary Jeff Fix, right, approach reporters after a law enforcement roundtable at Murph’s Creamery and Grill in Toledo on Thursday.

TOLEDO — U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa) gathered law enforcement professionals from the Tama, Toledo, Dysart and Meskwaki Nation police departments as well as the Tama County Sheriff’s Office for what she described as “a working lunch” at Murph’s Creamery and Grill in Toledo over the noon hour on Thursday to discuss recent developments at the federal level and learn how she could better support them in their day-to-day work.

While the event itself was not open to the press, Hinson stepped outside for a brief media availability after it had concluded as Toledo Police Chief Dan Quigley and one of his officers beelined back to a squad car to respond to a call for service. The congresswoman from Marion, who is currently serving her third term, said she had “quite the to-do list” coming out of the meeting and that much of the conversation revolved around immigration enforcement and how those detentions should be handled, along with a situation involving the differences between the state and federal sex offender registries and a loophole possibly exploited by an offender within Tama County.

On immigration, Hinson said illegal border crossings had dropped to their lowest point in “quite some time” since President Donald Trump had assumed office, and she felt that cooperation between local law enforcement agencies and ICE to track down “the true bad guys” remains a top priority. She didn’t believe a lack of coordination would be any issue in Tama County as Tama County Sheriff Casey Schmidt informed her that his office is receiving regular communication from ICE’s liaison.

During a subsequent interview with the T-R, Schmidt said leaders from the local agencies sought clarity on working with the federal government to enforce immigration laws but added that ICE has not had any enhanced presence in Tama County thus far.

“Especially over my career, ICE seems to do ICE things. Nothing out of the ordinary (has happened here). Nothing (that isn’t) routine or abnormal, no,” he said. “We get a lot of phone calls about all the immigration questions, and again, it’s just clarifying what the federal government is wanting to see us at a local level participate in, not participate in, how we become involved, not involved, just more clarity with the upper level to figure out our course of action.”

Another reporter asked Hinson for her view on whether or not individuals who have crossed the border without authorization but otherwise have Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) status or a work permit should still be deported.

“Well, I think they certainly did commit a crime by coming here illegally, but I think, also, we saw the Biden administration kind of enable that to happen. I think it’s why you’ve seen, also, now the CBP1 app be turned around in process, where that was used as the vehicle to get people in. Now it’s being turned around and actually being used as the potential deportation tool,” she said. “So I think that when you look at people who did take advantage of that, now it’s a tool to be able to tell them ‘Hey, we want you to leave, even if the previous administration enabled you to come here. If you leave now and use this app to do it, we’ll give you a chance to come back the right way and follow that process.'”

Hinson told reporters she shared farmers’ concerns about Trump’s imposition of tariffs but felt hopeful that a new trade representative would balance “the tariff conversation” with access to new markets and punish “bad actors” who seek to undermine American farmers and manufacturers.

“I think tariff policy is one part of the discussion and one tool. I think the other part is actually enforcing our trade laws to make sure those who are deliberately trying to undermine and not pay duties and tariffs are held accountable,” she said.

After the House passed a funding bill to avoid a looming government shutdown, Hinson expressed optimism that the Senate would do the same and said she was disappointed to see House Democrats vote against the package, which includes allocations for the largest pay raise for enlisted military members in 40 years, border security, Women, Infants and Children (WIC) food assistance and toxic burn pit funding, among other provisions.

“I look at the list of things that they voted against when we are still operating under a Biden budget, and I hope that they get onboard tomorrow,” she said.

Early Thursday afternoon, a federal judge ordered the reinstatement of thousands of federal employees fired or laid off by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and while she was just hearing the news for the first time, Hinson offered a broader assessment of the unofficial organization and its actions.

“What I think is important with DOGE is I just want to see efficiencies found across the board. I think that’s what the American people voted for, and we do have a lot of bloat in the federal government,” she said. “I actually had a chance to hear from Elon in person last week, and the directive that DOGE had given many of these departments was to go in and fire underperforming or low-performing probationary workers. And in some cases, whether it was intentional or not, they just fired every probationary worker, so I think that maybe we need to have a review of that process. But I want to make sure that there’s not spiteful activity happening just because they don’t want to cooperate with the Trump agenda.”

Regarding other issues specific to Tama County, Hinson noted her ongoing push to secure funding for a justice center on the Meskwaki Settlement and jurisdictional issues with the tribe due to a recent court case in Iowa.

“Of course, I’m still hopeful (on the jail). One of the goals that I had was (that) if we are able to get the (continuing resolution) done and continue the funding through September, that we could continue negotiating,” she said. “I think that that negotiation could have potential to still move forward. If that’s the case, then all of those community projects that I had requested including money for that would be included. We are working with them right now on what the process looks like for the fiscal year ’26 process and have already communicated with them that they can reapply if they want to.”

Additionally, Schmidt, who recently helped to lead an event on the topic at the Reinig Center in Toledo, said he remains a strong opponent of “scumbag scammers” who defraud local residents and hoped for increased cooperation between agencies at the local, state and federal levels to assist the victims of such predatory practices. One Tama County woman even lost thousands of dollars to a predatory barcode scam involving cryptocurrency.