Homeland Security officials will visit repurposed McCook Work Ethic Camp this week, first detainees could be sent soon
By: Zach Wendling - Nebraska Examiner
LINCOLN — The Nebraska Governor’s Office said a 17-day delay in publicizing a state-federal contract to convert a Nebraska prison into an immigration detention center was needed to conduct a legal review first of what information, if any, should be withheld.
Rob Jeffreys, director of the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services, signed the 183-page contract with attachments with an unnamed official in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement regarding use of the Work Ethic Camp in McCook on Sept. 30. However, the contract was not made publicly available until Oct. 17, when Gov. Jim Pillen’s office publicized the partnership.
In a Wednesday email responding to questions from Oct. 17, Pillen spokesperson Laura Strimple detailed the reasons for the legal review: What contract portions should legally be redacted under state and federal public information laws, “including laws protecting the integrity of the negotiation process and ensuring operational safety.”
Asked if the state had any other similar contracts with the federal government that have not yet been released, Strimple said, “There are no other related records which remain under legal review.”
‘Well-established exceptions’
Under the initial two-year contract, ICE plans to pay Nebraska at least $2.5 million each month to house federal detainees, adult men and women, at the repurposed Work Ethic Camp. The monthly reimbursement rate would increase by 3% in the second year.
Pillen’s office has said the contract would annually net Nebraska about $14.25 million. ICE will also pay Nebraska a one-time lump sum of $5.9 million for “facility renovations.”
All inmates previously housed at the Work Ethic Camp were moved to other Corrections facilities by early this month. The state has not yet answered where they were moved or whether some were paroled or finished sentences.
Strimple said among state exemptions used to withhold records were ones shielding information about the protection of public property security and persons on or within such property and personal information of personnel. Also used was a state exemption to shield certain information if its release could jeopardize promised federal funds, services or other “essential information.”
Exemptions under the federal Freedom of Information Act were also used, though Strimple did not specify which. Nine congressional exemptions shield information that could be “harmful to a governmental or private interest.”
“The Office of the Governor has released all public information while also considering well-established exceptions,” Strimple said.
Under state law, public records exemptions allow — but do not require — certain information to be withheld.
Among the information redacted in the released contract:
- Minimum staffing requirements.
- Certain pay details for on-call guard services.
- Government use of wireless communication devices.
- Names and contact information of some federal officials.
- Some examples of serious incidents that must be reported.
- What to do in emergency situations when receiving or discharging detainees.
- Allowable videotaping at the ICE facility (no videotaping without ICE permission).
‘New questions and concerns’
ACLU of Nebraska had negotiated with Pillen’s office and attorney Jennifer Huxoll, chief of the Civil Litigation Bureau, and had agreed that the state would release a “substantive response” on the Nebraska-ICE contract provisions by noon Oct. 17. That day, Pillen’s office sent out a news release disclosing the contract at 12:13 p.m.
The governor first announced that Nebraska would work with ICE to house federal migrant detainees on Aug. 19.
Jennifer Houlden, acting legal director for ACLU Nebraska, said last week that Pillen’s contract negotiations put Nebraska in “uncharted territory” in converting a state prison “into an arm of a massive detention and deportation campaign.”
“It speaks volumes that Nebraskans are only just now getting hard facts about this agreement, weeks after it has been signed,” Houlden said in a statement. “It is troubling that what we have now seen raises new questions and concerns about oversight, liability and the state’s authority to even open this facility.”
The Governor’s Office had denied at least nine records requests, including from the Nebraska Examiner, seeking more information on the Nebraska-ICE partnership by late September. Talks between Nebraska and federal officials had been happening since at least March, according to records separately obtained by Common Cause Nebraska, a government watchdog group.
The Examiner’s request included a standing request for the contract once it was signed and also sought information on communications between Pillen, his staff and Homeland Security officials about Nebraska housing federal immigration detainees. On the communications t the Governor’s Office said records exist but denied records on the grounds that such records were:
- “Proprietary or commercial information.”
- “Negotiation records for the lease or sale of an interest in real property.”
- “Confidential communications.”
- Shielded under attorney-client privilege.
Lawsuit continues
A lawsuit from 13 McCook residents and a former state lawmaker, filed last week in Red Willow County District Court, seeks to reverse the Nebraska-ICE partnership. It argues the joint effort and contract violates state laws and separation of powers in the Nebraska Constitution without legislative approval.
In a court filing this week seeking to dismiss the case, the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office, on behalf of Pillen and Jeffreys, defended the contract, writing: “Nebraska statutes do not hamstring the department from adapting its facilities to address ever-changing circumstances.”
Red Willow County District Judge Patrick Heng rejected a temporary restraining order to pause state-federal action Oct. 16, before it was clear a contract with ICE had been signed. Heng will consider a temporary injunction at a hearing this Friday. It would allow the lawsuit to continue and block Nebraska from accepting detainees.
“Homeland Security is doing walk-throughs this week,” Pillen said Monday on his monthly radio call-in show. “We would expect … folks would begin being incarcerated there in the next week.”
Nebraska Examiner Editor-in-Chief Aaron Sanderford and reporter Erin Bamer contributed to this report.