Nebraskans voice opposition to proposed ICE detention center
LINCOLN--Sen. Terrell McKinney of Omaha had hoped to hear from state officials, including the governor and the director of the Nebraska Department of Corrections, during a committee hearing at the Capitol on Friday about plans to convert a state prison into a proposed immigrant detention facility.
Instead, he heard from four dozen Nebraskans who showed up full of emotion, with posters and written statements to voice their opposition to turning the Work Ethic Camp in McCook into a federal facility to house those arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.
“I’m horrified. I’m disgusted. I’m embarrassed,” Melanie Knight, a resident from Clay Center, Nebraska, told members of the Urban Affairs Committee, which McKinney chairs.
People from across the state, including religious leaders, minors and grandmas, traveled to Lincoln to testify. However, over eight reserved seats for the state officials sat empty at the front of the room.
Sen. Terrell McKinney of District 11 is the head of the Urban Affairs Committee. He called the hearing for Sept. 12 at 9:00 a.m.
McKinney said he invited Gov. Jim Pillen, the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services, the state Fire Marshall, McCook officials and the Nebraska Department of Administrative Services to attend the hearing. The only government official to show up was Doug Koebernick, Inspector General of the Nebraska Correctional System.
In a letter released on Sept. 11, Kenny Zoeller, the director of the governor’s policy research officer, wrote, “The Governor’s Office, including all agencies under the Governor’s purview, will not be participating in the Urban Affairs Committee interim study….to examine alleged building code issues related to the Governor’s decision to make the McCook Work Ethic Camp available to the United States Department of Homeland Security for criminal illegal alien detention.”
Frustration grows; details remain scarce
Knight told lawmakers she called Pillen’s office on Aug. 8 when she learned Nebraska might be home to a new ICE detention facility. She said she was notified by his staff that Pillen “‘had no clue what was going on’” and had not been in contact with the federal government.
Less than two weeks after Knight called the governor, the Department of Homeland Security and the governor's office jointly announced that Nebraska would become the third state to detain people arrested by ICE agents who are alleged to be in the U.S. without authorization.
The announcement was short on details, except to indicate the state's Work Ethic Camp in McCook would be repurposed into an ICE detention facility that could hold up to 280 federal detainees. The McCook facility houses low-risk prisoners and provides them programming before they reenter society after serving a state prison sentence.
“We’re really, really proud of the team, what our team’s done, and what we’re embarking on,” Pillen said on an airing of “NewsNation Live.”
Since the announcement, legislators, lawyers, immigration advocates and members have voiced opposition to the plan and called on officials to provide details. Frustrated by a lack of information, one state senator showed up at the McCook facility Thursday unannounced for a tour, according to the Nebraska Examiner.
Friday was no different.
McKinney scheduled a public hearing under LR148 after the Legislature's Judiciary Committee declined to hold a hearing over Pillen's controversial plan.
LR148 authorizes the Urban Affairs Committee to conduct an interim study on any issue that falls under their jurisdiction during the legislative break. This includes reviewing whether the recently proposed immigration detention facility in McCook is following a Nebraska law that states that all criminal detention facilities must conform to certain minimum standards of construction, maintenance and operations.
“Under the proposed changes, the facility will house at least 300 people,” McKinney said during the hearing Friday. “My office finds the increase in this capacity concerning, foremost for safety and security.”
According to McKinney, officials plan to begin moving inmates out of the Work Ethic Camp into other facilities within 60 days. The current prison is an all-male facility, but the state hasn’t announced whether it will continue to be segregated.
Many Nebraskans used the hearing as an opportunity to express their opposition to the new detention facility.
Guillermo Enrique Peña Valladares, a resident of Grand Island, Nebraska, condemned the state’s plans during Friday’s hearing.
“I'm sorry if I get emotional, but this is, it hurts my heart to think that our community wants to detain me—that I can't travel interstate in the third district without thinking I might be detained, or my family may never see me again,” he said. “I am scared, but I will speak, and I ask those—para mi gente, que hablen, que sepan—to speak, to hear yourselves out.”
Gary Heusel spoke on behalf of Global Ties Nebraska, a nonprofit located in Lincoln that helps foster cultural understanding across the state.
"If you do this, it's not in the best interest of the citizens of Nebraska," Heusel said. "It's in the interest of some political person."
Rev. Scott Alan Johnson, the bishop of the Nebraska Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, used his time to decry Pillen and the Trump administration.
"I am deeply troubled by the anti-immigrant rhetoric, cruelty and dehumanizing practices being deployed by ICE at this time," Johnson said. "I believe this proposed facility will serve to embolden and increase those practices. I don't believe I'm alone in that belief, and I think we must be better than this."
History of the McCook facility
In 1997, the Nebraska Legislature passed legislation authorizing the creation of the Work Ethic Camp. Inmates began arriving in April 2001. Due to underuse of the facility and overcrowding in the Nebraska correctional system, legislation was passed in 2007 and 2009 expanding the Work Ethic Camp’s use.
There are currently two main buildings—an administrative building and a housing building—with a yard in between them.
The Work Ethic Camp in McCook consists of two main buildings with a yard in between them.
The Work Ethic Camp has a population of 184 inmates, according to Nebraska Department of Correctional Services data. However, the state prison only has the capacity to hold 125 people. There are currently three units with 50 beds and two units with 25 beds.
Koebernick, the inspector general, delivered a memo to the Legislature two weeks ago providing background about the Work Ethic Camp. During the Friday hearing, Koebernick gave a summary of what was in the memo and answered senators' questions.
“The building is quite crowded,” Koebernick said.
The Work Ethic Camp in McCook can currently hold up to 200 people. According to the proposal for the repurposed facility, ICE plans to hold 300 detainees in Nebraska.
He said he has two immediate concerns: Where will the men residing at the Work Ethic Camp go, and how will the programs at the facility be replicated at other state prisons? The inmates at the current facility are in minimum custody, so they need to be placed at the appropriate facilities.
Koebernick and his office will continue to monitor the situation despite their current lack of information, he said.
In the Thursday letter from the governor’s office, capacity concerns were briefly addressed.
Doug Koebernick, Inspector General of the Nebraska Correctional System, testifies at the LR148 hearing on Friday, Sept. 12. His testimony and question-and-answer period with the Urban Affairs committee lasted for over half an hour.
“Each of NDCS’ facilities, including the Work Ethic Camp, are accredited by and meet the occupancy standards established by the American Correctional Association (ACA). To ensure continued compliance with this standard, the Department is planning to convert several multi-purpose rooms into additional cell space. Once the facility is reconfigured, the Work Ethic Camp will have more than enough square footage per cell to comfortably house criminal illegal aliens and meet the ACA standard,” Zoeller wrote.
Rising Opposition
Spike Eickholt, a lobbyist for the ACLU of Nebraska, noted the governor is ready to close one prison while the state is building another to address overcrowding.
Nebraska's prison system, which was designed to hold fewer than 4,100 inmates, is home to 5,800 inmates. It is among the most overcrowded in the country.
"So one fundamental question we would urge this committee to ask is: Why are we committing to an investment of a new prison while giving up a current one?" Eickholt said.
Building Two of the Work Ethic Camp is the housing unit. There are currently 200 beds spread across five dorm-style living units.
In the week after the detention facility was announced, over 18,000 Nebraskans from nearly 400 towns signed a petition protesting the conversion of the state prison into an ICE detention facility, said Ruby Mendez on Friday.
Mendez testified on behalf of Nebraska Appleseed, a nonprofit committed to fighting for the justice of all Nebraskans.
“People from across the state of Nebraska are united in saying Nebraska should not be used for a large-scale federal detainment camp,” Mendez said.
Many others echoed her sentiment.
“I’m saying no to this as a rural Nebraskan who knows that we depend upon immigrant labor,” she said.
Deborah McKnight testified on behalf of 100 clergy members, including Bellevue Sen. Victor Rountree, across Nebraska. She read a letter condemning the plans to turn the Work Ethic Camp into a detainment facility.
“It [the planned ICE detention center] violates the inherent worth and dignity of human beings, our neighbors and friends, who are created in the image and likeness of God,” the letter reads.
In addition to the in-person comments, over 600 comments were registered online, according to McKinney.
One Republican lawmaker joined his Democratic and nonpartisan colleagues in expressing skepticism about the proposal by the hearing's conclusion.
"We all know there are more questions than answers," Sen. Stan Klouse of Kearney said.
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