Nebraska is partnering with the Trump administration to open “Cornhusker Clink,” a detention center to house illegal immigrants awaiting deportation or other proceedings, in a remote southwest corner of the state, Gov. Jim Pillen announced on Aug. 19.
The state will work with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to convert its Work Ethic Camp in McCook into the holding center.
About 20 Army National Guard soldiers will also help provide administrative and logistical support to federal immigration officials as they work together to enforce immigration laws in the state. The soldiers are scheduled to start training within the next week, Pillon announced.
“This is about keeping Nebraskans—and Americans across our country—safe,” Pillon said.
Illegal immigrants will be housed at the old prison work camp in McCook—a remote town of about 7,000 residents located near the border of Kansas in the wide-open prairies between Denver and Omaha. It is expected to be a hub for detainees from several states.
The facility is dubbed “Cornhusker Clink,” a play on Nebraska’s nickname as the Cornhusker State and an old slang term for jail. The center follows the opening of similar facilities—”Alligator Alcatraz” and “Deportation Depot” detention centers in Florida and the “Speedway Slammer” in Indiana.
Once opened, Nebraska’s new detention center will help the Trump administration in its quest to build the infrastructure necessary for increasing deportation of illegal immigrants.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) currently detains illegal immigrants at its processing centers and at privately operated detention facilities, along with local prisons and jails. Trump’s declaration of a national emergency at the U.S. border allows the military to shore up mass deportations and provide appropriate detention space. The Pentagon is also able to provide air transport to DHS.
DHS launched a recruitment drive last month to hire about 10,000 more ICE officers, offering $50,000 sign-on bonuses. As of Aug. 12, the agency had received about 100,000 applications, according to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.
The agency said in July that more than 300,000 illegal immigrants had been arrested under the Trump administration so far, and 70 percent of those were criminal illegal immigrants with convictions or criminal charges.
Nebraska also plans to work with ICE in other ways to support its ongoing operations, Pillon announced.
The Nebraska State Patrol is expected to sign an agreement empowering state troopers to work with ICE to help arrest criminal illegal immigrants.
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