Dear Governor Pillen...About that Detention Center

 By Marilyn Moore

Dear Governor Pillen,

The United States flag flies proudly on Memorial Day at the cemetery in Bartley, Nebraska, a village on the east edge of Red Willow County, just a few miles down the road from McCook.  My parents are buried there, having lived and farmed there all their lives.  I grew up on the family farm, about thirteen miles south of Bartley, and I own some farmland there, which my nephew farms for me.  While I have lived in Lincoln all my adult life, I consider that farm, and the surrounding countryside, to be my soul home…prairies and plains, crop land and pasture.  

So I paid special attention to the announcement of the proposed opening of an ICE detention center in McCook, because it’s close to home, and in Nebraska, that matters.

I know you’ve been receiving a lot of communication following your announcement that the Work Ethic Camp in McCook will be repurposed as an ICE detention camp.  Nebraskans have strong feelings about this action, and I’m sure you’re hearing them.  I suspect the comments have been across the political spectrum, with some Nebraskans saluting the state for joining President Trump’s vow to deport millions of persons who are in the country without legal documentation, and others expressing outrage that our state would join an effort that has divided families, ignored constitutional rights, and terrorized communities.  Just so you know up front, I’m with the second group.

I raise all the policy and organizational questions that others have raised:

* Can the governor just change a Nebraska facility and program that was established and funded by the legislature?  Is this constitutional?

* With a prison system that’s already among the most overcrowded in the country, why are we giving prison space to a non-Nebraska program?

* There was a significant effort to build relationships with the people of McCook before the Work Ethic Camp opened.  Why was there no such effort this time?  A conversation with the mayor a couple of days before the press conference belittles the community and its residents.

* How is a facility that was designed for 200 men going to be remodeled to hold 300 people?  And those people?  Men, women, children, families?  Evidently that is not known….

* And speaking of the people to be housed here, President Trump and DHS Noem have said this deportation effort is to focus on “the worst of the worst,” while Nebraska’s Director of the Department of Correctional Services says that only low-level offenders will be housed here.  Which is it?  

* And if they’re the “worst of the worst,” that would imply they’ve already been charged and convicted with a high-level crime, so why aren’t they housed in the prison of the jurisdiction where they were tried and convicted?  Why be transferred to McCook?

* If they’re low-level offenders, that’s probably code speak for “no crime committed at all,” so why are they being detained?  If they’ve been charged with a crime, and being held without bail, which would be unusual for a person charged with a low-level crime, why aren’t they being held in the jail of the jurisdiction where the crime was committed and the trial will be held?

* I suspect the persons to be held in this facility are neither of the above; they will be persons swept up in ICE raids of packing plants or roofing businesses or agricultural fields.  In other words, people doing hard work, honorable work, work that matters a lot to the economy of Nebraska.  Is that really the look you want for our state?  And how does that make Nebraska safer?

* Courts at every level have ruled that persons who are detained for being in the US without legal authorization are entitled to all elements of due process, which includes the right to receive legal counsel.  Are there sufficient attorneys in Red Willow County to provide this constitutionally guaranteed representation?  Is the State of Nebraska going to assure that legal counsel is available?  

I care about all the issues and questions I’ve raised above, but what I really want to ask you about is the language that is used in talking about immigrants and refugees, whatever their status in the country.  From the moment that Donald Trump descended his gold escalator in 2015 and declared something to the effect that “Mexico isn’t sending us their best; they’re sending us murderers, they’re sending us rapists, they’re sending us drug dealers,” the language of some candidates, some public officers, and some members of the public has become increasingly coarse, punitive, harsh, and dehumanizing.  In short, it’s language that bullies, language that demeans.  

Take the phrase, “worst of the worst.”  That implies people who are truly monsters.  And there may be a few in the millions of immigrants in this country.   But it’s been applied to every one of the people sent to El Salvador, even though the vast majority of those men had no criminal conviction of any kind.  The same phrase has been used to describe the persons being held in the detention center in Florida; again, the majority have no criminal record.  That’s hardly “the worst of the worst,” unless, of course, the intent is to paint a picture that every immigrant who is here without documentation is a monster…and I fear that may be the intent.  

The tricky thing about name-calling is that it often spreads beyond the original target.  Because some persons without legal documentation have been charged with crimes, some residents may come to believe that all immigrants, those here legally and those here without authorization, are dangerous, or a threat, or lazy, or a sex trafficker, or a drug trafficker, or a terrorist, or any other label that is used by a public official.  And that’s not only incorrect, it’s just wrong.  You know, I know you know, that the crime rate in the immigrant population is significantly lower than the crime rate in the non-immigrant population.  I’m far more likely to be assaulted, or have my car stolen, by another long-time resident of Lincoln than by a member of our many immigrant communities in Lincoln.  (And I’m not worried about either; the crime rate in Lincoln is low and getting lower.) But language has created in the eyes of many an “other,” immigrants who are a threat to public safety.

I wonder, Governor, if you’ve thought about the children of those you describe as “criminal, illegal aliens.” That may be the way that you see the people who will be rounded up and brought to the ICE detention center in McCook, but to their children, many of whom are US citizens, they are Mom and Dad.  You have said often that there is no more important thing Nebraska can do than to take care of our kids…the children of immigrants are our kids, too.  Will they be cared for when their parents are in the detention center?  

And speaking of language, I must raise the name of Cornhusker Clink, following in the tradition of “Alligator Alcatraz.”  I don’t know if these names are meant to be funny, or cruel, or sardonic, or cute…but I have to say they are awful.  Again, they demean the people who are sent there. As the sheriff of Red Willow County noted, the word “clink” is the label used by the Nazis for prisons during WWII. Not an association I would be proud to make with “Cornhusker.”

Finally, Governor, I would ask that you use language that affirms the basic human dignity of all.  I know that you are a person of faith…as am I. Your faith tradition is Catholic, mine is United Methodist.  Both of our bishops have issued statements about the proposed detention center; both are concerned.  

Bishop James Conley of the Catholic Diocese of Lincoln writes, “Finally, we must never forget: every person – whether an immigrant or not, documented or not – is a human being made in the image and likeness of God.  This human dignity must be recognized and respected.  Let us constantly see each other with the eyes of Jesus Christ, who looks mercifully and lovingly upon each one of us.” The Rev. Dr. David Wilson, Bishop of the Great Plains Conference of the United Methodist Church, says, “What is clear to me, and I hope to you as well, is that people should be treated with dignity….these are real people created in the image of our Creator God.  Flippant comments about this facility being the ‘Cornhusker Clink’ are not cute, nor are they funny.  They dehumanize the people who will be detained there….”  

Perhaps Bishop Conley and Bishop Wilson have the words from Leviticus 19:33-34 in mind:  “When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them.  The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born.  Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt.  I am the LORD your God.” Your words are heard, Governor; they are reported and repeated.  You have an opportunity to demonstrate and affirm the dignity of all persons…and model such language for all of us.  

A challenge, Governor.  Could we shift the perspective on 11 million immigrants?  Away from finding and deporting them, to finding a way for most of them to reside legally in the US.  We know that the persons in this group in Nebraska are for the most part hard-working people, parents of children, who want to provide for their families.  They are doing jobs that need to be done…and they are the source of any growth our population is experiencing.  A Gallup Poll from June 2025 indicates that more than 75% of Americans favor a path for citizenship for persons who are not legally here if they meet certain criteria over time.  How about re-directing some of the energy and money presently used in apprehension, detention, and deportation to creating such a path?  That would serve Nebraska agriculture, Nebraska industry, Nebraska schools and communities.  It would be, in a phrase, “Nebraska nice.” 

Sincerely,

Marilyn Moore