Iowa Democrat Senate candidate Josh Turek is airing immigration ads with two sheriffs who halted ICE detainers and backed Alejandro Mayorkas, undercutting claims of tough law-enforcement support.
Josh Turek wants Iowa voters to see badges behind his border message. His campaign’s new ad puts Linn County Sheriff Brian Gardner and Story County Sheriff Paul Fitzgerald on camera to sell that image.
Breitbart reported the spot presents the two sheriffs as proof Turek has law-enforcement backing in the U.S. Senate race.
Fitzgerald’s line in the ad is blunt.
"As a law enforcement officer, I know Josh Turek has our back, and yours,"
The record those sheriffs built on immigration enforcement tells a different story. Both men, identified in that reporting as Democrats, spent years limiting cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
In 2014, Fitzgerald ordered Story County to stop honoring ICE detainers. Those are the requests ICE uses to hold inmates past release so federal agents can take custody.
He explained the policy to the Ames Tribune in plain terms.
"We cannot deprive somebody of their freedom without a criminal charge or a warrant for their arrest, and a detainer is neither of those,"
That choice left ICE with less time and fewer local partners when targeting removable offenders coming out of county jail.
Fitzgerald later put his name on a national fight over border leadership. In January 2021 he signed a letter backing Alejandro Mayorkas for secretary of Homeland Security.
The letter called Mayorkas a “proven leader” who “has worked to keep the nation secure.”
Mayorkas went on to run DHS under President Joe Biden. The House impeached him in 2024. Reporting on the Turek ad notes that his tenure covered four years of policies that allowed millions of illegal immigrants into the country.
Iowa Democrats have spent years trying to keep national party baggage at arm’s length, a pattern visible when an Iowa Democrat running for governor worked to wall off Biden and Harris on the trail.
Gardner’s county took a parallel path. In 2014 he told The Gazette Linn County would change how it handled federal immigration holds.
"We will no longer hold any inmates past their release time merely on an ICE hold,"
The newspaper wrote that the change was quietly implemented. Gardner also refused to join 287(g), the federal program that lets trained local officers help ICE enforce immigration law.
The Federation for American Immigration Reform, known as FAIR, listed Linn County as a sanctuary jurisdiction as recently as its 2025 Sanctuary Jurisdiction report.
Turek still rolled both sheriffs into a message aimed at voters worried about the border. The ad treats their presence as a seal of approval from law enforcement.
His own paper trail on benefits and status is no cleaner. While serving in the Iowa state Senate, Turek voted for taxpayer funding to provide welfare for illegal immigrants, according to the same reporting that dissected the ad.
That vote sits beside a longer pattern of missed work and road time that has already dogged him, including coverage of how the Iowa Senate nominee missed votes while fundraising out of state.
When Turek launched his U.S. Senate bid, he claimed he opposed benefits for illegal immigrants. In a recent debate he advocated for “pathways to citizenship.”
Those two positions are hard to square for voters who want enforcement first and benefits closed to people here illegally.
Republican nominee Ashley Hinson used the same debate stage to highlight a different kind of endorsement. She announced support from the National Border Patrol Council, the union that represents Border Patrol agents.
One candidate stood with sheriffs who limited ICE detainers and rejected 287(g). The other stood with the agents who work the line.
Attendance fights have already framed parts of this race, including earlier scrutiny when Josh Turek said campaigning kept him off the floor as Hinson posted a far stronger vote record.
Iowa remains central to the midterm map. National voices have already flagged GOP exposure in the state, the same warning lane Laura Ingraham sounded on vulnerabilities in Iowa, Texas, and beyond.
Economic headlines still move voters here too, from factory floors to farm towns, including major projects such as when Trump announced a $15 billion Iowa steel plant billed as the largest in American history.
None of that erases the choice Turek made in his immigration creative. He cast sheriffs who curbed ICE holds, refused a core ICE partnership tool, and blessed Mayorkas as the face of “law enforcement support.”
Gardner’s 2014 hold policy and Fitzgerald’s detainer order were not secret. The Mayorkas letter is public. FAIR’s 2025 listing of Linn County is public. Turek’s state Senate welfare vote is public. The debate line on pathways to citizenship is public.
The ad asks Iowans to trust the badge on screen. The paper trail asks them to read what those badges already did when ICE came calling.
Voters who want secure borders and honest government can tell the difference between an endorsement and a costume.
