GOVERNOR JIM PILLEN PLANS TO USE MCCOOK FACILITY AS IMMIGRATION DETENTION CENTER

MCCOOK, NE – Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen announced Tuesday that the Work Ethic Camp (WEC) in McCook will be used as a detention facility for people awaiting deportation and other immigration proceedings.

The Trump administration is calling the facility the “Cornhusker Clink.”

McCook Mayor Linda Taylor, Red Willow County Sheriff Kevin Darling, County Attorney Paul Wood and Deputy County Attorney Emily Wood had a 30-minute meeting with Pillen on Saturday to discuss the upcoming changes to the WEC.

“Because the meeting was brief, we didn’t receive a whole lot of details, and we were told more information will be shared in the days ahead,” Taylor said during Tuesday’s news conference. “I know our community has questions. … We will work cooperatively with the governor’s team and with ICE to learn more and to communicate to everyone what we are learning.”

She said she expects to be able share information about the project’s scope, timelines, operations, and any impacts on public safety.

“We will keep you informed,” Taylor said. “Our committment is to approach this with respect, transparency, and care for the people of McCook and Red Willow County.”

According to a news release from the governor’s office, the plan is part of a series of new state-federal partnerships to support President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement efforts.

Along with the detention facility, about 20 Nebraska National Guard soldiers will provide administrative, clerical and logistical support to Nebraska-based ICE officials in enforcing immigration laws.

The soldiers are expected to begin training this week before being deployed to offices in Omaha, Grand Island and North Platte after Labor Day. The agreement then lasts through Nov. 15, and it could be extended.

The Nebraska State Patrol also intends to sign an agreement with ICE, giving state troopers authority to help federal agents arrest people in the country illegally who have committed crimes.

According to Col. Bryan Waugh, one trooper or investigator from each of Nebraska’s six troops will be picked to undergo a week of training with ICE officials. The six troopers will then work with ICE in a secondary capacity to assist with apprehensions.

Col. Waugh said the troopers will join roughly 300 other law enforcement officers with similar training. He also thinks the overall impact to the patrol will be minimal.

The Nebraska Department of Correctional Services has made an agreement with ICE to house detainees for 365 days. Director Rob Jeffreys said a three-year agreement is currently being negotiated.

Under the agreement, ICE will house detainees at the WEC using federal funding, but the facility will remain under NDCS control.

The facility, which can house 200 inmates, will make room for 300 detainees who are minimal to low risk, Jeffreys said. The 186 inmates currently lodged at the facility will be rehoused at different NDCS facilities across Nebraska.

Jeffreys anticipates those inmates will be moved in the coming weeks, but he said it’s unclear when ICE will begin housing detainees.

“This is about keeping Nebraskans – and Americans across our country – safe,” said Governor Pillen. “We want President Trump to know that Nebraska is supportive and grateful for his ongoing, critical work with Secretary Noem to arrest and deport criminal, illegal aliens.”

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a DHS news release Tuesday that the 280 beds in McCook will contribute to the 80,000 the federal government is looking to add through the funds designated in the One Big Beautiful Bill.

“Thanks to Governor Pillen for his partnership to help remove the worst of the worst out of our country. If you are in America illegally, you could find yourself in Nebraska’s Cornhusker Clink. Avoid arrest and self deport now using the CBP Home App,” she said in the release.

Nebraska Appleseed issued a response to the Pillen’s announcement saying, in part: “This is not who we are. Nebraska is a state that welcomes our neighbors and values the contributions of local moms, dads, coworkers, neighbors, and friends. Nebraskans do not want us to be known as a state that separates families and locks up and detains members of our communities. …Nebraskans want policy change, not punishment.”

Sen. Pete Ricketts and Rep. Adrian Smith shared the following statements regarding the agreements:

“While the Trump administration has taken great strides to secure our borders, more work remains. Recent arrests in Nebraska of violent gang leaders wanted in El Salvador have shown President Biden’s failure to address the border crisis have impacted more than just border communities. The initial information provided about the McCook facility appears to support these efforts, and I look forward to learning more about this project.”

• Adrian Smith

“Nebraskans elected President Trump to secure the border and keep Americans safe.  I voted for the One Big Beautiful Bill with this goal in mind. I am familiar with the Work Ethic Camp in McCook from my time as Governor. It is a great fit for ICE’s needs. This move will support the local community and keep jobs in McCook.  I support President Trump’s actions to protect our communities and Governor Pillen’s work to bring DHS investment to Nebraska.”

• Pete Ricketts

 

POWER OUTAGES ACROSS SOUTH DAKOTA GOVERNMENT HALT SERVICES STATEWIDE

SIOUX FALLS, SD (Makenzie Huber and John Hult / South Dakota Searchlight) – South Dakota state government telephone systems and websites went down across several departments Tuesday, limiting systems and services.

One woman filling out driver’s licensing paperwork at the Sioux Falls One Stop Tuesday afternoon yelled in exasperation over the news. There was no signage to warn her driver’s license exams were closed, just an empty waiting room and blank TV screens.

She was informed about the closure by a passerby, and later a state Department of Motor Vehicles staff member.

People looking to get marriage licenses and vehicle registrations experienced similar hassles Tuesday across South Dakota.

As of Tuesday evening, the reason for the power outage behind the state’s technical difficulties – and people’s frustrations – was still unknown.

Bureau of Information and Telecommunications spokesperson Lisa Rahja said it’s not clear how long the power outage will impact state operations and services, she said.

“The event affected all state-hosted services and some network communications,” Rahja said in an emailed statement. “The state engineer and BIT technical staff have investigated the root cause and are taking measures to remediate.”

The data center is not a single location, Rahja later told South Dakota Searchlight, but rather the term used by the IT bureau to refer to all the hardware scattered across multiple locations and connected to the state’s communications network.

Rahja said the state was still looking into the cause and extent of the outages. But the situation was not weather-related, she said, and that “there’s no reason to believe there’s any other external factors.”

“We’re trying to really get that back up and running, but we can’t even nail down what part of it is having the issues, because it’s all very large and complex for the entire state.”

An incident command center was launched Tuesday to streamline communications between the bureau and the office of the state engineer as they work to resolve the issue.

Outages across multiple departments

Some websites were entirely down Tuesday, including websites for the secretary of state, attorney general, auditor, treasurer, bureau of finance and management, as well as departments of social services, education, agriculture and natural resources, tourism, tribal relations and public safety.

The state’s medical marijuana page was down even as the state’s Medical Marijuana Oversight Committee met in Pierre. SD.net, the state-run service that streams government meetings, only streamed portions of that committee’s Tuesday meeting. Coverage was also spotty for the audio stream of the state’s Rules Review committee.

South Dakota’s transparency website, Open SD, and the website that hosts meeting agendas, minutes and calendars for dozens of state regulatory and oversight boards and commissions were also affected.

Calls to the state Department of Health, which maintains the medical marijuana page, were dropped throughout the day. The state Department of Public Safety posted on Facebook that it would close driver’s license exam stations until network service returned. A note on the Department of Revenue homepage said the department and clients were having issues accessing the state’s online filing system.

The state Legislature and Unified Judicial System sites were working, though the UJS homepage said “connectivity issues” might prevent some online features from working, including the state’s eCourts system.

In a post on X, Attorney General Marty Jackley apologized for a lack of public access to his office’s services

“You may not be able to reach our office at this time,” Jackley said.

Local impacts

Local agencies that rely on South Dakota state network access were impacted on Tuesday. The Minnehaha County Treasurer’s office in Sioux Falls, for example, was unable to access the records needed to issue license plates and vehicle registrations.

“Computer issue — no registrations can be printed,” a sign at the treasurer’s office read. “We can review your paperwork.”

Down the hall at the Minnehaha County Register of Deeds, county employees were unable to access any state records on births, deaths or marriages. People could pay in advance for records they’d need to get at a later date, Assistant Treasurer Vicki Fuglsby said, but only if they paid cash.

The system for accepting credit card payments is tied to the state and wasn’t working, Fuglsby said.

“We had to turn away people looking for marriage licenses,” Fuglsby said.

The Lawrence County Treasurer’s office in Deadwood, like every other Treasurer’s office in the state, was unable to print vehicle registrations on Tuesday. Typically, there’s a mailing fee for customers who ask that records be sent, said Sally Atkinson, the First Deputy Treasurer in Lawrence County.

On Tuesday, attendants took checks and prepared paperwork for registrations, titles and the like, and offered to send the documents without the fee.

“It’s not their fault. They drove up here to get this done, and now they can’t,” Atkinson said.

 

BOARD BACKTRACKS ON EFFORT TO REMOVE STUDENT GROWTHGOALS FROM SOUTH DAKOTA TEACHER EVALUATION REQUIREMENTS

PIERRE, S.D. (Makenzie Huber / South Dakota Searchlight) – A plan to remove an expectation of student growth from South Dakota’s rules governing teacher evaluation rules stalled Monday.

Student growth is one performance outcome among many used to track student achievement. It’s also part of the mix of factors used to measure teacher quality.

The South Dakota Board of Education Standards voted to rescind a previous decision to hold a public hearing on the effort to remove student growth from teacher evaluations. The rules will continue as they exist for now.

That’s primarily because state Department of Education Secretary Joseph Graves said some state Board of Education Standards members shared concerns after the group approved the department’s plan in May. He also expected the initiative to fail a legislative committee hearing required for the change, since the committee rejected a similar proposal last year.

The revision would have removed a requirement that teacher performance evaluations use “student learning objectives,” which are student educational growth goals. The objectives are set by the teacher and school administration. The standard is beneficial for some school districts, but not for others, Graves said.

Graves previously told the board that the specific student growth piece of the evaluation has become “increasingly trite and meaningless” with some teachers or schools setting low standards they can easily meet.

Department officials plan to review the rules and bring the topic back to the board later in the year. That will allow the department to educate the board about why the state tied student achievement to teacher evaluation and what other options there are.

Board president Steve Perkins was the sole vote against the effort at the board’s May meeting, saying he wanted another option presented and more time to study the issue. On Monday, he said he’d welcome a review of the policy.

“There is a problem, and this evaluation system is kind of broken for many districts,” Perkins said. “If we’re going to adopt a rule on it, we kind of need to understand it.”