CoreCivic signed a new contract valued at $60 million a year with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to house migrant detainees at its Leavenworth facility, but the agreement won’t take effect until legal issues are resolved.
The U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday joined a private prison company in its legal fight with Leavenworth city officials, accusing the city of “aggressive and unlawful” interference with immigration enforcement.
Seemingly undeterred by legal setbacks, private prison company CoreCivic is on a hiring spree to staff a Leavenworth detention center and showing every sign that it intends to fulfill its contract with ICE.
A Leavenworth District Court judge reaffirmed his decision to bar CoreCivic from housing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement prisoners at its closed facility, rejecting the private prison company’s appeal to reconsider.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement used the pretense of a national emergency to justify a secret, no-bid contract with CoreCivic that would pay the company $4.2 million per month to house detained immigrants at its vacant Leavenworth prison.
A Kansas district court barred CoreCivic Wednesday from reopening its shuttered prison until the company goes through Leavenworth’s development process to receive a special use permit.
A U.S. District Court judge ruled in favor of a private prison company that plans to use its troubled Leavenworth facility for immigration detention. The city argued CoreCivic should follow local laws first.
CoreCivic will know by Friday whether it will have to delay plans to begin holding Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees in June at its Leavenworth facility.
The city of Leavenworth and CoreCivic will take their fight to court June 9 to determine whether the company can reopen its prison facility as an ICE detention center without going through a permitting process.
The Trump administration’s plans for expanded immigration detentions include Kansas. While a 1,000-bed facility in Leavenworth is on hold, the majority of the state’s detention plays out in a Flint Hills jail.
