Former prison becomes ICE detention center

Okay, a new ICE detention facility is now open in western Minnesota, about three hours from the Twin Cities. And obviously there's a lot of concern as the prison can hold up to 1,600 people. This is presumably where ICE detainees will be held as they're awaiting their case to make it through the process. Yeah, I mean, the doors open this week, just Monday it sounds like, and it will get up to 1,600 right now. You know, the U.S. government isn't telling us how many people. I mean, it may just be one, two, three, four, you know, five heads in there. It's not clear. We're just trying to, you know, figure it all out from our sourcing. This is a once this is a fascinating historical. You know, case of what had been a private prison. The prison has been closed for 15 years. No, it shuttered back in like 2010 after the recession. Governments that were sending inmates, out-of-state inmates, Minnesota, would use it. It was a facility. What I found fascinating, as I was doing some historical research just in the last couple days on it, was it was actually built by the city, by the government up there. The mayor had an idea, what, 08, so 17, 18 years ago, as an economic... engine to build a big prison and hope to like bring in money would provide jobs and then you. Core Civic Company eventually bought it, and then in recent months sold it. The sale itself got some big time controversy connected to it. Because at one point it sounded like, CoreCivic was offering the state $75 million to take it over, and then the U.S. government swept in with DHS and bought it for nearly half a billion dollars. The company has addressed it, saying that the numbers aren't the same, and there wasn't a full audit, and the U.S. government paid for what it would cost to build a facility of this size. But yeah, a lot of eyes are now on it, because this is a detention center, and detention centers are getting a lot of attention around the country. Privately managed, the U.S. government, it's kind of in a no man's land where, you know, there aren't going to be a lot of eyes on it. I know in that community, you know, some community groups that are very concerned are all of a sudden, you know, kind of rallying. There's going to be a rally this weekend, news conference rally, to bring attention to what's going on there. They're concerned about the treatment, about justice, about whether the detainees' constitutional rights will be followed. The hope is for the feds and DHS, this is their mass deportation efforts. They need beds. They need places to put people that are on the road out of this country. Now, what's interesting and what I'm hearing from local immigration attorneys who are so plugged in on the immigration court docket, they're telling me that the early detainees who are arriving are actually coming in from out of state. They're being flown into our airport. And then being transported up on white transport buses. And it doesn't appear that necessarily Minnesota immigrants that are arrested, picked up by ICE at this point are headed to this facility. So it's interesting. I don't know what kind of holding facility if the US hopes to have it be like a place of last destination. And then from there, from MSP, they could fly out detainees back to countries all across the globe. President and this White House and this administration, you know, despite the election losses, does seem committed to continuing with their efforts of mass deportation. And this will provide when it's up and running. You know, we know, of course, Civic wants to hire 500 jobs there, you know, staff. I think right now they may be only about like 125 that they publicly acknowledged. So there's going to be a large ramp up. You know, there's there's there's time to come. But yes, detainees are going to be headed there. You know, we don't know for Exactly where one one immigration attorney did send me over, although they blanked out the name that now if you go look up on the public portal, you know, ICE has an inmate locator. It does now list the Appleton detention facility as a housing unit of this. At least one individual. We know at least one person is in there. And then from what it was, what we can follow on like social media from this watchdog group up in Appleton, Wisconsin, which is about three hours up, I guess what you were. The South Dakota border that they have seen people, inmates, immigrants, detainees arriving. So we do know people are on the ground there now. So prior to this, were there any ICE detention facilities in the state of Minnesota besides the Federal Building, the Whipple Building that we know about? So three major hubs for where ICE, DHS had been detaining immigrants and it's county jails where they pay per bed. Elk River is the closest one. To the Twin Cities, Sherburne County, Albert Lea has has has a contract is that Freeborn County and then Kandiyohi County, Willmar or Kandiyohi County in Willmar. So three main detention Centers, county detention centers where inmates would be housed. So is this the first individual detention center just for ICE detainees? Because even at the Whipple building here in the Twin Cities, St. Paul, I believe, right? St. Paul or Minneapolis. That's right on the border. That's why I never know. No man's land property. Exactly. It's right on the border. So besides the because the Whipple building is where they have courtrooms. That's where federal court immigration court plays out. Plus the detention center. Is there anything like this in the nation where it is just a detention center for immigration violations and defendants in that realm? I don't know how because I'm not an expert around the country. In Minnesota, this is absolutely the first of its kind. Like I said, right now, the feds pay per bed at these county jails. And those county jails also have contracts with the US Marshals. So someone facing federal criminal charges would be housed in Elk River, we often hear About cases where someone, like a Vance Belter, while that case was playing out, he was there. But for specific immigrants, for this population, this deportation effort, this is the very first of its kind. I mean, the Whipple Federal Building, and obviously there was litigation about it at the time during Operation Metro Surge. I mean, they were arresting so many people. They were just looking for beds. And maybe there are a couple true beds, but that's not even, I mean, that's not really a detention center. But no, this will be. This is unique, it's controversial. You know, we know, you know, we heard about Dilley and some of the, you know, detention centers down in Louisiana and Texas, you know, during Operation Metro Surge. My my my understanding at the time would have been that those were true ICE detention centers. Well, remember, like, what was it, Alligator Alley? They were going to Alligator Island, Alligator Island. They were going to try to, you know, build this thing in a swamp and have it surrounded by swampland. And I think that was met with all sorts of, I don't think, I don't think that ever opened, but did it open and is it still operating? But anyway, those are the kinds of places that the government is trying to do. There's huge amounts of money the feds have given to DHS, Congress and this administration. And this is how they spent half a billion dollars to buy this prison and make it a detention center. So there are, There are concerns from immigration groups, you brought up immigration attorneys. They're worried that it could make it harder for detainees to access attorneys and legal representation because of its rural location. Right. I mean, you think about, I mean, obviously phones, you know, what kind of access to phones, what kind of access to communication, you know, will an individual immigrant have? I mean, you think if you put somebody in the metro area, someone needs to visit, you know, you think about the base of legal minds here in the Twin Cities that could, you know, get to an Elk River and Albert Lee, even probably a legal community in Wilmer. I mean, if you put, look up Appleton, Minnesota on a map, there's not I don't even know what I would tell you is the nearest sort of even community of lawyers where it could be. So in terms of physical proximity, it's difficult. So that is a concern and no doubt these civic groups will be keeping an eye on it. I know our local bar association of immigration attorneys will keep eyes on it. And then the other thing that one immigration attorney kind of posited to me was Was that because they think these are folks that are going to be coming from elsewhere, their cases jurisdictionally may be handled by courts elsewhere. So they could be housed here. But they could have a Kansas immigration case or they could have been detained in Texas and then and they could be moved up here where how do they access attorneys from wherever they've been moved from. So that we'll all have to keep eyes on that. The law states that attorneys and clergy have to be allowed to access these detention facilities. But advocates right now are watching to see whether they can even enter the Appleton site. So it sounds like, You have not found any attorneys or advocates that have actually been able to get inside since it opened on Monday. Right, and I kind of hit up when we got word, I forget, oh, it was the community group that posted that had sort of eyeballs on the ground up in Appleton to say they're here, and they called this rally. So we saw that on social media on Monday, and I quickly went, you know, hit up my immigration attorneys, and like I said... I don't have, we don't have one of my, the immigration attorneys I've been in touch with who has been contacted by anybody up there to take a case like that. And because they're involved in the immigration court up here, they hadn't even seen yet, you know, let's say you have an immigration case and it's unfolding. I mean, you can do it remotely like via Zoom, which often is what happens with these detainees. These detainees are not coming into court. They had yet to see an Appleton case pop up. At Fort Snelling, at the Whipple building yet. But again, I mean, I mean, I'm no I'm no I'm not joking. I mean, I think there could be like three, four or five detainees there right now. Like, I don't think it's. I don't think we had a mass from what we're hearing, literally, yeah, and I think it's just like a sprinkling of people right now, which is kind of when you, I don't know, we haven't shown the video here, but like, I mean, it's a huge complex, it's just kind of, it's kind of crazy just to think about, like, are they just using, like, one corner of it now, like, how do you speed up the speed? Well, and it also begs the question of how long they plan to keep this open, they haven't made that clear, you were talking about Alligator Island, which I was pretty sure, I did confirm, It did open in June of 2020, To 2025, a year later it was closed with Governor Ron DeSantis from Florida saying it was always meant to be temporary. So they did house ICE detainees there for a year. Now it's closed again. We don't even know if that's a similar situation here. Is it just open while these ICE operations are ramped up and then they won't need it once the operations ramp down? Yeah, I mean, that's a great question. I take a minute, but I don't want to get distracted. I think there was some sort of management contract signed with CoreCivic. They sold the facility. The US government might be on the hook for a five year sort of service contract there. But a whole new administration in two years could, yeah, I mean, you might not need 1,600 beds for mass deportation efforts in Minnesota in two years. Who knows how long this will be open? You mentioned this, but residents in Appleton seem to be divided about it. Some believe that they oppose the facility and they oppose immigration enforcement, and so they're organizing these protests and vigils. Others welcome the jobs. And if you think about the historic lesson here, and I'm not a great Appleton coffee shop guy. I don't know exactly what I would get if I went up to town today and took a temperature on the street, a barometer. But it was once upon a time that community built that prison. For the idea of kind of economically saving kind of a rural spot with nothing else going on. So at one point, that was sort of an economic game plan, was a prison of some kind. And then for several years, you know, inmates from around the country who had committed crimes. We're up there, this is a different clientele that will be in that facility going forward. And just with this heightened attention on immigration, I do think a lot of eyes will be on that facility. But I could imagine throughout that community in that county, some mixed feelings. There could be people thrilled to have a decent paying job. And we did reach out to DHS, Grace, I'm sorry, I know you had that statement ready ready for a while and Paul and I were just chatting away, but DHS did release release a statement when you reached out to them today? I did, yeah, and just again confirming that it opened on November 9th, so Monday, and You know, open to strengthen America's ability to enforce its immigration laws and carry out the American people's mandate for mass deportations. The site gives ICE immediate capacity to detain and remove those who have no legal right to remain protecting American communities and restoring the integrity of our borders without waiting years for new construction. The site gives ICE immediate capacity to detain and remove those who have no legal right to remain protecting American communities and restoring the integrity of our borders without waiting years for new construction. That last bit, likely a reference to why they paid so much money for it. CoreCivic, again, once upon a time, there was a $75 million price tag if Minnesota wanted to buy it, and then the U.S. government comes in and pays half a billion dollars. CoreCivic, with some strong contacts with the Trump administration, there is some pushback. But there, CoreCivic said in another statement to me that if it were to be built new today, it's a $1.3 billion bill. So for the U.S. government to get it for half a billion is a pretty good deal. But that's all wrapped up with what's happening up there. But yeah, it's officially open. It's kind of fascinating. You can kind of track it all because there are social media groups that kind of babysit the airport for the arrival of immigration-related flights. And the post I saw most recently, which was a flight yesterday, they said detainees went out On the plane, like boarded, but they said three detainees came off that plane. And those three detainees, people with eyeballs on the process, watched transport van or two go from the airport up to Appleton. So if you start doing some math, you know, there are eyes and ears on the entire process. And I know these community groups and activist groups and watchdog groups will want to know what's going on inside. And I think I think it'll take a little time to get any report. It's out of there, about the conditions, about access to lawyers. But all of this stuff, if it's not working out appropriately, the likely place we would see it is in a court, with court filings demanding access, demanding correct treatment of individuals that are up there. But the US, again, using it for mass deportation, and likely, just based on how I figure it figure it all out, this could be a holding facility for For immigrants from elsewhere, at least for now, that they'll be flown in here and stay up in Appleton. I'm sure it won't be the last time that we hear about this facility. Definitely not. We'll have you on again to talk about it. Thanks, Paul Bloom from our Fox 9 investigators. Appreciate you. We're gonna take a quick break. We'll be back after this.