The state’s Work Ethic Camp in McCook, Neb., has become a detention center for migrants facing deportation proceedings. (Cindy Gonzalez/Nebraska Examiner)
By Cindy Gonzalez, Nebraska Examiner
Lincoln, NE – A Nebraska lawmaker’s second visit to a state-owned prison in McCook serving as an ICE detention hub ended Friday with mixed reactions.
State Sen. Margo Juarez of Omaha, whose district is a nearly five-hour drive from the town of about 7,200 residents, said she was “relieved” to see a more “humane” scenario than she had read and heard about at other places where U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement holds migrants awaiting deportation.
State Sen. Margo Juarez made a social media post when she left her half-hour walk-through of the McCook facility that houses migrant detainees as they await deportation. (Screenshot)
Among improvements she noticed since her last visit in December to McCook: Migrants get a cafeteria dinner rather than a brown bag meal in the evenings; religious-appropriate food is available, and work started on expanding the number of showers. “Heavy construction” could signal better accommodations for migrants, Juarez said. But it also alarmed her as, she said, it reinforced escalating costs to carry out President Donald Trump’s mass deportation effort she opposes.
Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen teamed up with the Trump administration to repurpose what once was a rehabilitation work camp for low-risk Nebraska male inmates into a rural hub for ICE detainees. Federal funds are paying to rent and rehab the all-male prison, which holds up to 200 people but is to grow to a 300-bed capacity.
“Bottom line, I’m a taxpayer. I’m paying for that,” Juarez said. “I don’t agree with how the illegal immigrant issue is being addressed. It’s just so frustrating to see the expense going on here.”
Juarez said she agrees with public investment in more secure borders. “But unless somebody commits a crime and we don’t want them to be here, there is a need for the workforce.”
Repeating a refrain she has voiced during legislative debate on the persistent state budget woes, Juarez said she believes foreign-born newcomers more often contribute positively. “There is no doubt immigrants contribute to our tax revenues.”
Rare visits
Such visits from state lawmakers and elected officials are important and have been rare, Juarez and others said, as federal officials have placed more stringent restrictions since the facility was converted for use as an ICE detention prison. Another Nebraska lawmaker, State Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh, has publicly criticized the Pillen administration when she twice was denied entrance.
Nebraska Corrections Director Rob Jeffreys has cited protocols for “security and safety of corrections facilities” and said the use for ICE detainees now requires federal permission for on-site visits.
Like Juarez’s previous December walk-through at the McCook ICE hub, Friday’s half-hour tour was guided by prison system escorts, including the assistant warden. She also was at the site last September — when it was winding down as the Work Ethic Camp — and did not require prior authorization.
Juarez said she was not able to interact Friday with any of the migrant detainees. She started planning more than a month ago, filling out required permission forms.
While she didn’t see the entire facility, she said the number of ICE detainees seemed about the same as her last visit, at which time she estimated 100 to 150. Nebraska Corrections officials have declined to provide a detainee population count or daily average, citing security concerns.
The December visit was planned by state officials, and four other state lawmakers attended as well.
Juarez said that from a hallway and behind glass, she could see some detainees relaxing on beds. “They had blankets,” she said.
She saw a migrant prisoner participating in an apparent legal proceeding by video conference. She saw four others interacting at a table in the cafeteria, another at a table talking to a lawyer and other detainees working in the kitchen.
Juarez said she sees a need for reading materials in other languages and has put the word out for donations.
Renovation progress
A sign that Sen. Margo Juarez of Omaha saw as she was pulling close to the McCook, Nebraska, facility that was repurposed to an ICE detention hub. (Courtesy of Margo Juarez)
Progressing more extensively, she said, was renovation work, including in the outdoor courtyard, which she believed kept detainees from exercising outdoors as they did during her last visit.
Juarez said she also saw signs of the trailer installation, where staff offices would be located.
And she learned that a solitary confinement area would be added. Her escorts referred to it as a space where detainees would go if they needed a “time out” or a spot alone.
Juarez said she doesn’t know of any other state lawmaker that has visited the McCook facility since December, meaning that only a half-dozen of the 49 have been there since it began accepting federal ICE detainees in November.
She said she will visit again, likely next year when major construction is done, to check on detainee wellbeing.
Juarez said she saw signs of opposition on private land while driving to the McCook facility. She said she didn’t visit this time with community members.
Said Juarez: “I am assuming everybody for the most part just has gone on with life.”
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