Today, Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen confirmed that a minimum-security prison facility in McCook, Nebraska, is now holding people in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody as a state-owned and operated immigrant detention center.
Nebraska was the third state to announce a partnership with the Department of Homeland Security Secretary to expand ICE detention space, following the opening of Florida’s infamous “Alligator Alcatraz” and announced plans to use an Indiana prison to hold detained immigrants.
The start of detention operations follows more than two months of questions and criticism from Nebraskans, including hours of testimony opposing the facility at a September legislative hearing.
Pillen’s decision to offer the state prison facility for detaining immigrants comes against the backdrop of a significantly overcrowded prison system. Nebraska’s prisons are at more than 140% of their designed capacity. The McCook site held just under 200 men at the time of the ICE announcement.
American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska Executive Director Mindy Rush Chipman made this statement:
“History will not remember this moment kindly. For all the governor's talk about public safety, the reality is that our federal government is hurting our communities by stripping away protected statuses, separating families, taking people who have been here for years, and denying them due process once they are in detention. I recently saw a protest sign that said Nebraska must not be complicit — I completely agree. We will do everything in our power to ensure basic rights are respected in this facility, and we will continue to work alongside our communities to urge our governor to reverse course and end this disgraceful stunt.”
From August through September, the ACLU of Nebraska earned three court victories on behalf of women facing automatic stays from ICE that unilaterally blocked them from being released on the bond that an immigration court judge had granted. All three were taken in ICE’s Glenn Valley Foods worksite raid in Omaha.
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