Nebraska’s Lt. Gov. Joe Kelly is familiar with the pendulum swing of partisan politics. President Donald Trump appointed Kelly as United States Attorney for the District of Nebraska in 2018, a position he held until the Biden administration took office. When speaking to the River City Republicans on Wednesday, he opened his remarks by citing the terse email he received from the Biden administration in February 2021.
“It just said, ‘Dear Joseph, thank you for your service as U.S. Attorney. You need to be out of the office by February 28th,’” Kelly recalled with a chuckle. “That’s the way it goes.”
Kelly was asked to speak to the group specifically about the new ICE detention center in McCook, which some have nicknamed the “Cornhusker Clink.”
The facility has brought some predictable protests from the left, with one rally held outside the governor’s mansion featuring signs reading “ICE=Gestapo” and “No Nazi Nebraska.” But as the pendulum swings in politics, things were not always this way.
“The Obama administration was deporting people in large, very large numbers that rivaled what the Trump administration has been doing, but nobody said a word about it,” Kelly said. “You’re going to have some residents who object, but if you really read or listen to what’s being said, it’s somebody who simply does not think the Trump administration should be doing what they’re doing with immigration. And we do — we support that.”
The facility was originally built during the administration of former Gov. Ben Nelson as a prison with a “boot camp philosophy” for younger adult offenders. As Kelly explained, the theory was that military-style structure and discipline would rehabilitate young inmates. “It made perfect sense to me… The reality is, statistically and research-wise, it never panned out.”
The conversion of the center into an ICE detention facility came as Director of Corrections Rob Jeffreys had already been planning to move its roughly 250 state inmates to other spaces in Lincoln and Omaha. When ICE approached the state needing additional detention beds, Kelly described the deal as a win-win situation.
“We keep the employees who wanted to stay in McCook … In exchange, we hold these folks for the federal government. Right now it’s just a really good workout for both sides of this equation … Because of the federal funds to house these prisoners, that facility is putting money in the pocket of the state of Nebraska.”
While not necessarily housing the “worst of the worst,” Kelly shared examples from ICE of early detainees to illustrate they are not merely civil immigration violators:
- An illegal immigrant from Indiana arrested for drug trafficking and heroin possession
- A man from Burundi previously convicted of domestic violence, multiple DUIs, resisting arrest, violation of a protection order, and a known Crips gang member
- A man from Gambia previously convicted of shoplifting and DUI
- Others charged with concealed weapon, DUI, domestic violence, and assault
Kelly emphasized that the vast majority of detainees have no Nebraska connections whatsoever and that the federal government alone decides who is housed there and for how long. Kelly also praised the dramatic change at the southern border.
“Governor Pillen was down this week in Texas with Governor Abbott and some other governors … They had been there several times during the Biden administration, and all of them, like all of us on TV, saw people just coming across the river and coming across the roads illegally. And now that is a sealed border … Considering the length and difficulty of enforcing something like that, that’s really a tribute to everyone from Tom Homan and the President all the way down.”
The McCook facility currently has a capacity of up to 280, with discussions underway to expand to 300. Employment at the facility is also expected to rise from 97 staff to around 150–160, with Kelly crediting the “Cornhusker Clink” as “a money-maker for the state of Nebraska.”
