No ICE Prison in Minnesota

Appleton, Minnesota, is fairly far west in the state, near the South Dakota border. 

In 1992, the city of about 1,500 built a 500-bed prison, hoping to attract some entity to fill it and create jobs. It was expanded twice, up to 1,600 beds, and was bought in 1997 by CoreCivic, one of the best-known private prison companies.

In 2010, CoreCivic closed the prison after the State of Minnesota had built its own prisons and began sending fewer prisoners. Then in 2023, our state legislature passed a bill banning private prisons. 

Now, the Department of Homeland Security has bought the moribund prison from CoreCivic (I'm sure for a nice profit, especially given its condition), and CoreCivic will get the contract to run the prison, too. Gee, that's great for the company! 

And who will be in the prison? ICE and CBP detainees, of course. 

While some people in Appleton were open to the idea of CoreCivic reopening its prison because it would bring back jobs, they are not as thrilled about the prison being sold to the feds, which takes it off the local tax rolls and deprives the city of 30% of its tax base, according to Minnesota Public Radio. 

Others in the community and the rest of the state are solidly against having an ICE prison in Minnesota, and against this end run around our state law.

Yesterday, two Republican state legislators who represent the area held a town hall in Appleton about the detention facility. (MPR story here.) One of them appeared to be saying he wants the state to step in and compensate Appleton for the lost property tax revenue. (Not!). 

He also made the type of apologist statement a local official might have made in a town near any concentration camp in Germany or Poland:

Anderson said he understands that people have strongly held views on the facility, but “they're not going to stop the national trend of detaining people and deporting folks that are not here legally. So you know, let's work together and make this a positive thing economically for Appleton, even if you don't agree with what's happening there.” 

Republicans. Vote them all out.

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h/t to Minneapolis Rep. Katie Jones, on BlueSky, for this.