LINCOLN — After a Republican colleague nixed the idea for a public hearing of the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee, the lone Democrat who chairs a Nebraska legislative committee has scheduled a hearing for the public to air concerns and get answers about Gov. Jim Pillen’s plan to convert the McCook Work Ethic Camp into a jail for migrants the federal government wants to deport.

The Sept. 12 hearing called by State Sen. Terrell McKinney of Omaha, chair of the Legislature’s Urban Affairs Committee, comes on the heels of the Judiciary chair’s decision not to host a hearing.

State Sen. Carolyn Bosn of Lincoln last week called it “premature” to hold a hearing sought by 13 progressive lawmakers in the officially nonpartisan Legislature, including McKinney. Many have been critical of the Pillen administration plan, which responds to an amped up Immigration and Customs Enforcement strategy and campaign pledge by President Donald Trump to use states to help accelerate mass deportations.

Last week, Bosn suggested instead that the group direct questions to Pillen and the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office. She said that would be faster and more effective and said the Judiciary Committee had “no more extraordinary authority” than a single or group of lawmakers seeking answers.

McKinney Letter

Tuesday, McKinney issued a letter of his own saying that due to “potential building code issues” presented by Pillen’s plan, the Urban Affairs committee under Legislative Resolution 148 will offer “a space to discuss such concerns.” The 9 a.m. hearing on Friday, Sept. 12., is open to the public in room 1507 of the Capitol.

McKinney told the Nebraska Examiner he has invited Pillen’s team to the hearing, and expects administration responses will promote “transparency” to Nebraskans. He said he had been considering a hearing before the Urban Affairs Committee before the Judiciary Committee chair opted out.

McKinney’s letter, which he and others publicized on social media and sent to state agencies, the all-male Work Ethic Camp in McCook has 200 beds and an operational capacity of 125.

A repurposed facility for U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement would house about 300 people — an increase in capacity that McKinney’s letter described as “concerning, foremost for safety and security.” It would be state-owned and operated and, state officials have said, the federal government would fully reimburse Nebraska to house federal migrant detainees there.

McKinney’s letter says Nebraska law requires state buildings and jails to conform with International Building Code standards, including calculations for maximum occupancy. The Urban Affairs Committee oversees legislation and issues related to state building codes.

The letter said that according to state law, “A correctional system overcrowding emergency shall exist whenever the director certifies that the department’s population is over 140% of operations capacity.”

McKinney asserts that the 300-bed facility planned by Pillen and ICE would put the facility at 240% of a 125-person operational capacity.

Dayne Urbanovsky, a spokesperson for the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services, said Tuesday that bed capacity at the McCook facility would be increased by repurposing existing multipurpose spaces that had been used previously for meetings and other programming. Urbanovsky said that the department would “ensure all modifications meet building and safety codes.”

The 186 people Nebraska housed at the McCook facility as of Aug. 19 are to be moved to other prisons over the next two months, with specifics still being ironed out.

Laura Strimple, Pillen’s spokesperson, said that Correctional Services Director Rob Jeffreys and his team look forward to providing an in-depth briefing — to the full Judiciary Committee, which she pointed out includes McKinney and has “principal subject-matter jurisdiction over the Department of Correctional Services according to the Legislature’s own rules.”

Said Strimple: “Nebraskans expect much from their elected representatives and deserve more than politically motivated media sideshows.”

Prison Overcrowding

Legislatively approved in April 1997, the McCook Work Ethic Camp opened in April 2001 as an effort to reduce prison crowding, primarily by offering rehabilitative programming to low-risk offenders. As a result, the facility hoped to open up space for more violent offenders in other state facilities.

The Work Ethic Camp has most recently served adult men convicted of felonies who need substance use treatment or cognitive restructuring. It had an annual state budget of $9.5 million last year and about 85 staff.

Tuesday, Omaha retiree Paul Feilmann stood with a huge sign outside the Governor’s Residence to protest the detention facility. “I’m trying to keep the issue out there,” the former delivery van driver said, and plans to return every week day from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. for three weeks. His record stay on such vigils, he noted, is four months in 2019 objecting to lack of criminal justice reform.

Mostly alone Tuesday, Feilmann talks to passersby about the issue and makes calls to strategize with others that have the same goal: to get Pillen to change direction. He also participated in a Friday rally that drew about 150 to the Governor’s Residence.

“It’s dehumanizing and historically raises a whole bunch of nasty inhuman issues,” he said, calling the ICE facility a “bridge too far.”

In the earlier Aug. 27 letter to Bosn — on the letterhead of State Sen. Megan Hunt of Omaha — the 13 senators posed multiple questions. They noted also that the Judiciary Committee chaired by that Bosn has jurisdiction over matters relating to the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services.

Hunt’s letter said Pillen did not seek input from the Legislature on the repurposed detention facility the Trump administration nicknamed the “Cornhusker Clink.” Hunt called that problematic, as the Legislature is “the people’s branch … a co-equal and independent branch of government.”

Legality Issues

Among questions the lawmakers had was about the legality of Pillen entering a federal agreement to convert a state-run, legislatively defined prison into a federal immigration detention facility, and the legality of Correctional Services facilities and staff being used to house ICE detainees.

The Nebraska Constitution’s Article IV, Section 19, has since 1875 given the Legislature exclusive authority in the “general management, control and government of all state charitable, mental, reformatory and penal institutions.”

The Legislature this spring completed a nearly two-year effort to clarify and strengthen its legislative oversight of executive branch agencies, including the state prison system.

Strimple, in response to the Hunt letter, said lawmakers who want answers are welcome to ask the Governor’s Office.

“The administration cannot answer questions when they are not asked,” she said.

This story was published by Nebraska Examiner, an editorially independent newsroom providing a hard-hitting, daily flow of news. Read the original article: https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2025/09/02/lawmaker-group-finds-public-stag...