State Prison to ICE jail: Nebraska’s High-Stakes Handoff

Critics warn move undermines oversight while Nebraska invests millions in new prison space.

Gov. Jim Pillen didn’t bother with warning shots. On Aug. 19, he stood with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and announced Nebraska’s Work Ethic Camp in McCook would be gutted and remade as a 300-bed ICE detention center. A prison traded for a prison. Only this time, the inmates won’t be Nebraskans — they’ll be migrants.

The governor beamed, calling it the “Cornhusker Clink.” To him, it was proof Nebraska was doing its part in Trump’s deportation machine. But to state lawmakers — 13 of them, Democrats and progressives in the officially “nonpartisan” Unicameral — it was a backroom deal gone too far.