Officials announced Tuesday that a minimum-security prison in McCook will be converted into an ICE detention facility, though details about who will be held there and when the transition will begin remain scarce.
Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced on Tuesday afternoon that the McCook Work Ethic Camp, currently a minimum-security prison, will be repurposed into a detention facility to hold immigration detainees as they await court hearings or deportation flights.
According to Pillen and Nebraska Department of Corrections Director Rob Jeffreys, the facility will continue to be run by the state but will be paid for by the federal government. There will be an initial one-year contract with opportunities for extension.
The facility has been dubbed the “Cornhusker Clink” by Noem and Pillen. It is the third such state-run immigration detention center commissioned by the federal government and given what Jeffreys described as a “very lively” name, and is modeled after the so-called “Alligator Alcatraz” detention center in the Florida Everglades.
At a press conference in McCook, Mayor Linda Taylor said Pillen’s team held a 30-minute meeting with city and county officials on Saturday afternoon, though she said they didn’t receive a “whole lot of details.”
“I know our community has questions,” she said. “We share those questions with our residents who deserve clear and timely answers. We will work cooperatively with the governor’s team and with ICE to learn more.”
Jeffreys said at a separate press conference that the facility will be expanded to safely house 300 people by utilizing multipurpose and activity rooms for housing. The current operational capacity is 200 people.
He expects the inmates at the Work Ethic Camp to begin being transferred to other facilities at some point in the next 45 to 60 days. Jeffreys said the timeline for moving immigration detainees into the facility is still up in the air.
“We still need to talk with ICE,” he said. “I don’t want to get baked into a timeline with them before we take care of our own house.”
Asked if children or families will be held at the facility, Pillen said he is “not a politician” and has “not thought about that.” Pillen initially said the facility would hold people who are “minimal to low risk,” though he later referred to detaining “criminals” and “terrorists” who are involved in drug and sex trafficking.
“They will be people that have come that are criminals that have come through in the past four years,” Pillen said of the people who will be housed at the facility. “Low to minimum means that they are not murderers, but they are a risk and a threat to our communities.”