'We didn't ask for this': Nebraska town fuming over 'asinine' ICE takeover of camp [View all]

Source: Raw Story

October 27, 2025 12:18PM ET


The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is creating a different type of disruption in the town McCook, Nebraska, by making a deal with the Republican governor to take over a work camp and convert it into another undocumented immigrant holding facility. That led to lawsuits filed by the town's residents.

According to a report from the Washington Post, the state is handing over the Work Ethic Camp in McCook, population 7,212, to DHS with the town being cut out of the approximately $14 million paid by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Aside from the money, the report notes that the town has been long proud of the camp that allowed offenders convicted of minor crimes to receive wages paid by the state as they try and restart their lives by working in the community, and now the camp is being snatched away to become, as Gov. Jim Pillen (R) calls it: “Cornhusker Clink.”

The Post is reporting, “The closure has McCook officials and local nonprofits that depended on the prison labor scrambling to find a new workforce,” with City Manager Nate Schneider adding, “We didn’t ask for this.”

Read more: https://www.rawstory.com/we-didn-t-ask-for-this-nebraska-town-fuming-over-ice-takeover-of-camp/?utm_source=superhead