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.
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“No meaningful notice,” they wrote in a scorching letter to Judiciary Chair Carolyn Bosn. No consultation. No public process. Just a governor and a handful of aides cutting a side deal with Washington and calling it security. Sen. Megan Hunt dropped the hammer: “That is not how democracy works.”
Who’s Running This Show?
The Nebraska Constitution is clear: it’s the Legislature — not the governor — that sets the rules for state prisons. Yet here we are, watching a state facility rebranded for federal use without a vote, without debate, and without answers to basic questions:
What happens to the Nebraskans already locked up in McCook?
If we’ve got beds to spare, why is the state sinking $313 million into building another prison?
And what business does a state corrections officer have moonlighting as ICE staff?
It’s not just a turf fight. It’s about liability. Contracts. Health care. Pensions. Who pays when things go wrong? Right now, it looks like Nebraska taxpayers are underwriting Trump’s deportation surge while their own system buckles under overcrowding.
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The Story Keeps Shifting
Pillen first said the McCook lockup would house “low-risk” detainees. Then he upped the ante to “criminals” and “terrorists.” His corrections chief called it a “Midwest hub” for ICE. Secretary Noem went with the greatest hits: “the worst of the worst.”
So which is it? A low-security holding tank or a super-max for traffickers and terrorists? Even the governor hasn’t thought through whether kids or families will end up in McCook. He told reporters, “I’m not a politician.” Fourteen years in office says otherwise.
MY TAKE: Bosn says she’s “reviewing” the request for a hearing. Translation: don’t hold your breath. While she dithers, the Cornhusker Clink barrels ahead — stitched together out of legal gray zones, political theater, and a governor more interested in meme-making than policymaking.
McCook didn’t ask for this. They wanted jobs, investment, a shot of life. What they got instead is a front-row seat to Trump’s deportation dragnet. Nebraska likes to sell itself as the Good Life. But this deal makes it something else entirely: Trump’s little jailer, on the prairie.
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