Nebraska will become the third state to operate a detention center on behalf of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), converting a minimum-security state prison into what the Department of Homeland Security is calling the “Cornhusker Clink.” It comes in the wake of the “Alligator Alcatraz” and “Deportation Depot” sites recently opened in Florida, and the “Speedway Slammer” in Indiana.
A partnership with the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services (NDCS) will allow ICE to use the Work Ethic Camp in McCook, a men’s work-release facility near the state’s southern border. Trump’s “big beautiful bill” is funding 280 ICE detention beds in Nebraska, including those at the McCook facility, which has a 200-bed capacity that’s now slated to be raised to 300. The state prisoners currently assigned to the facility will be transferred.
The same NDCS staff currently working there are expected to be retained, but provided with some sort of higher-level training. The facility itself may also be outfitted with additional unspecified security measures.
At an August 19 press conference, Governor Jim Pillen (R) told reporters that he’d learned about the plan four days earlier.
“These are things that came about very, very, very quickly. We actually reached out and asked our federal partners to take a breath, slow-play it a little bit,” Pillen said. “We did not know this could become a reality—a significant reality—until Friday afternoon.”
He later said that his office and NDCS had in fact been exploring the idea with DHS for a long time, but had never mentioned it because it wouldn’t have been appropriate to talk about it prematurely. Apparently that changed the afternoon of August 15, when a DHS field agent came down to McCook and said (presumably to NDCS Director Rob Jeffreys) that the site was fantastic and “this is going to work.”
After briefly referencing that they haven’t even had a chance to sign the contracts yet, Pillen told reporters that he expects to enter a 365-day agreement that will ultimately remain in effect as long as President Donald Trump is in office.
“I’m not into speculation,” he said. “So to be able to tell you what the future of the [detention center] is, you know, I’m not in a position to—we have not put a lot of energy into that.”
In the wake of the announcement, multiple other Nebraska officials indicated that this was the first they were hearing of it.
Rep. Mike Flood (R) said that the “proposed facility appears to support” Trump’s border agenda and that he “anticipate[s] that more details will emerge.” Senator Deb Fischer (R) expressed similar support “as we await further details about the proposed detention facility.”
“I’m learning about this the way that everybody else is, which is really on the fly,” Senator George Dungan III (D) told KETV. “My first thought is that I’m incredibly concerned. These kind of decisions being made quickly and seemingly without any consultation with the legislature … at this point I don’t think a lot of people know exactly what this is going to look like.”
Senator Pete Ricketts (R) stated that he’s familiar with the site from his time as governor and that it’s a “great fit for ICE’s needs,” and that the development will bring economic investment to McCook.
“I think that there will be a capitalistic opportunity,” Pillen said.
While Nebraska probably won’t be the last state to partner with ICE in this capacity, not every state is going to be opening its own equivalent facility. The McCook prison will likely serve as a hub for half a dozen or so surrounding states. Pillen said that he expects most of the people detained will be coming “from a state to the West of us,” rather than from within Nebraska.
He confirmed that he had briefly spoken with the mayor regarding use of the small city-owned airport located about four-and-a-half miles from the prison. The Ben Nelson Regional Airport has just two runways and one airline, which would be ideal for facilitating deportations without disrupting commercial air travel.
“I think that there will be a capitalistic opportunity,” Pillen said. “There will be a capitalistic opportunity for fuel … it’s too early to tell you how many [will be flown] in and out, but certainly the attractiveness was the facility and, obviously, being a couple miles from the airport.”
He explained that detainees wouldn’t be brought to the facility by plane, but that ICE would use the airport for those who’d been seen by an immigration judge and were being “exported.”
“Hardcore reality, we have 13- and 14-year-old kids creating some extraordinary criminal activity … so I’m not sure what the age limits would be.”
“[Fentanyl] is in all 93 counties,” Pillen said. “We have risked our kids, it’s incredibly important that we go after the cartels. It is a gigantic piece of the equation. We’re simply doing our part to get these people off of our streets, get them out of our communities, and get them the heck out of here.”
Pillen spoke at length about the threat of transnational drug-trafficking organizations. But the McCook facility is minimum-security, and will not be used to hold detainees with known affiliations to any of those groups. It appears that it will be used to hold anyone picked up by ICE who entered the US within the past four years.
Pushed by a reporter about whether his characterization of all detainees as “criminals” is based solely on their being in the country without documentation, Pillen said that the people housed at McCook will be “not murderers,” but all linked to criminalized activity of some kind.
“Lots of it has to do with drugs,” he said eventually. “Lots of it has to do with drugs and sex trafficking.”
In response to the same reporter’s question about whether ICE planned to use the facility for people of a particular age or gender, Pillen said he didn’t know.
“I’ll be honest, I’m not a politician so I’ve not thought about that, I’ve not asked that question,” he said. “Hardcore reality, we have 13- and 14-year-old kids creating some extraordinary criminal activity, even in the extraordinary state of Nebraska. So I’m not sure what the age limits would be.”
He heavily praised NDCS Director Jeffreys‘ leadership, and said that whenever he visits the prisons he gets letters thanking him and praising the department’s culture and programming.
“And the folks that want to yell about overcrowding and all that, they don’t know what’s going on,” Pillen said. “Simple as that.”
Earlier in 2025, Jeffreys confirmed to the Nebraska legislature that the NDCS prison population is at more than 140 percent capacity. Multiple people have died as a direct result of the department’s housing practices.
Image of Work Ethic Camp via Nebraska Department of Correctional Services