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LINCOLN — Nebraska Appleseed officially appealed the dismissal of its lawsuit seeking to challenge the Pillen administration’s legal authority last year to convert a state prison into a federal detention center for migrants.
The case, appealed Thursday, comes on behalf of former State Sen. DiAnna Schimek and 13 McCook residents regarding the repurposing of Nebraska’s Work Ethic Camp in McCook. The lawsuit argues that Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen and the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services first needed legislative approval.
Schimek was one of the original lawmakers who authorized the creation of the state’s Work Ethic Camp in 1997. It opened in 2001 and housed state inmates until late last year.
The appeal is to the Nebraska Court of Appeals. The Nebraska Supreme Court might expedite the case to its own docket.
Nick Grandgenett, Appleseed’s immigrants and communities senior staff attorney and lead counsel for the plaintiffs in the case, said Nebraskans want “welcoming communities where everyone has a sense of belonging, not large-scale detention camps.”
“We are disappointed with the district court’s decision to dismiss this lawsuit,” Grandgenett said Thursday. “Nebraska law is clear. Neither the governor nor the NDCS director have the unilateral authority to use the Work Ethic Camp for immigration detainment. We look forward to the opportunity to present this separation of powers case on appeal.”
Red Willow County District Judge Patrick Heng dismissed the case in late March. He initially allowed it to move forward in October 2025, though, even then, Heng said Pillen and Jeffreys were within their rights to have the state contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“It is clear that the current situation with the department and ICE detainees was never contemplated when the statutes were created, but the language utilized by the Legislature is broad enough to allow the defendants to take the action they have chosen,” Heng wrote in October.
Heng’s ruling last month put a finer point on the constitutional matter: “There has been no violation of separation of powers in the defendants’ actions.”
Pillen, in a March 27 statement, had called Heng’s dismissal a “huge victory and the right decision” to affirm the state’s authority to use the Work Ethic Camp as an ICE detention center.
The Legislature made no changes to state laws regarding a “work ethic camp” for the state in the 2026 legislative session, which ended last week.
The repurposed Work Ethic Camp — which Pillen and federal officials have described as the “Cornhusker Clink” — remains state-owned and operated. The nearly 200 Nebraskans who had been at the McCook facility were moved out following the Sept. 30 signing of the Nebraska-ICE contract, which officials have estimated would annually net Nebraska about $14.25 million.
Jeffreys, at a public cabinet roundtable Monday, said state staff at the repurposed facility are “incredible” and have “adapted” to the new partnership, which he described as turning a state expense into a “revenue-generated asset.”
“We’re providing a safe, state-run environment, like we’ve always done with the rest of our population, to make sure that people are being treated humanely and with care and dignity,” Jeffreys said.
The facility remains at a capacity of up to 200 detainees, but construction continues to bring that toward the 300 stipulated in the Nebraska-ICE contract. Jeffreys anticipates construction will be done by July. As of February, Jeffreys said the repurposing had brought in $4.4 million. The facility had operated at around $10 million annually.
Once complete, Nebraska could receive the full $2.5-million-per-month the feds had promised, but which the state is not yet receiving.
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