By Sherman Smith, Kansas Reflector
TOPEKA — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement used the pretense of a national emergency to justify a secret, no-bid contract with CoreCivic that would pay the company $4.2 million per month to house detained immigrants at its vacant Leavenworth prison.
CoreCivic revealed in court filings the amount of money it stands to lose if the city of Leavenworth prevails in legal proceedings aimed at blocking the company from reopening its prison. But the details of the contract remain undisclosed.
ICE filed internal paperwork that outlines the agency’s “justification” for giving contracts to private companies without going through the normal bidding process or revealing the cost, citing President Donald Trump’s declaration of a “national emergency at the southern border.” The agency said the situation “poses significant public safety risks.”
The secrecy, cost and justification of the contract outraged immigration advocates who oppose CoreCivic’s plans to reopen the Leavenworth facility — because of the company’s track record of abuse and neglect of prisoners and the nationwide crackdown by masked ICE agents who show little regard for civil rights or the status of people they detain.
“We just want to say we can overpay billionaires to house human beings on civil law violations,” said Michael Sharma-Crawford, a Kansas City-based immigration attorney. “I just don’t even know where we go from here. I just don’t. I mean, everything is geared to making billionaires more billions and continuing to crush any dissidents and human rights along the way.”
Sharma-Crawford said residents deserve to know how their tax dollars are being spent.
“This isn’t a national emergency. You are entering into a contract for the housing of civil detainees,” he said. “There’s nothing secret about that. There’s no scientific knowledge. There is no tactical knowledge. There is nothing that is secret about what you’re paying to house people.”
ICE published its “justification” document April 7 under the category of “unusual and compelling urgency.” The document references a five-year commitment to pay unnamed companies to operate nine facilities that combined would have 10,312 beds, including 1,000 in Kansas. The cost of the secret contracts is redacted.
The document notes that “many jurisdictions” have refused to work with ICE in recent years, making the agency increasingly reliant on private companies. An open competition for bids would take a year to complete, the document said.
“ICE does not have the time for the competitive process to be completed to procure more beds,” the document said. “Increased detention capacity is needed immediately to avoid the release by ICE of a significant numbers of aliens into United States.”
CoreCivic operated a federal pretrial prison in Leavenworth for more than two decades. U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson in 2021 described the facility, with its routine violence and lengthy lockdowns, as “an absolute hell hole.” The facility closed on Jan. 1, 2022, when President Joe Biden’s administration ended contracts with private prisons.
The city of Leavenworth filed a lawsuit to block CoreCivic from reopening the facility as an immigration detention center. The city argues that company should seek a permit, which could require the company maintain certain standards at the facility. A state district court judge issued a temporary injunction blocking CoreCivic from reopening the facility while the matter is being litigated.
The company asked the judge in a June 13 court filing to reconsider the temporary injunction.
“CoreCivic has a Contract with ICE under which it stands to lose approximately $4.2 million in monthly revenue if the Court maintains the temporary injunction,” the court filing said.
Ryan Gustin, a spokesman for CoreCivic, said the company is “pursuing all avenues to find a successful conclusion to this matter.”
“CoreCivic has been actively marketing our Leavenworth facility for years,” he said. “We stay in regular contact with ICE and all our government partners to understand their changing needs, and we work within their established procurement processes. Any questions about our contractual relationship with ICE should be directed to ICE Public Affairs.”
ICE Public Affairs didn’t respond to a Kansas Reflector inquiry.
Micah Kubic, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas, said the deal between ICE and CoreCivic “reflects a broader pattern of collusion between private corporations and their enablers in this presidential administration.”
“By circumventing its own requirements for contract bidding, ICE has essentially ensured that its favorites get hefty, federal contracts fueled by taxpayer dollars to fill their prisons, and we’ve seen how this money grab translates into reckless, at times horrifying conduct by masked, anonymous agents in our neighborhoods.”
Sharma-Crawford, the immigration attorney, said he has clients who were detained by ICE after they entered the country on a visa or immediately filed for asylum and were here lawfully. He said ICE agents were “grasping at straws to make numbers.”
Ashley Hernandez, organizing and policy coordinator for the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth’s Office of Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation, said the supposed national emergency is only “in people’s heads.”
“We’ve seen a lot of propaganda and a lot of hate speech that kind of drives that,” Hernandez said. “I think the national emergency, if we want to say there is one, is that there are people coming to our country seeking help, seeking a better life, and they’re fleeing the true national emergencies that are in their countries. They’re fleeing death. They’re fleeing sickness. They’re fleeing pain.”
She said she was interested to know whether CoreCivic’s contract includes standards for maintaining the facility, treatment of detainees, medical care, and access to translators and a full-time judge of duty. Without standards, she said, “it’s just another hell hole.”
She said it was “just insanity” to allow any company “to profit off of human pain.”
“As Catholics, as people of faith, we are called to treat everyone with dignity,” Hernandez said. “We are called to help the poor, help the sick, walk with the marginalized and be their voices. So our faith really calls us to make sure that this detention center doesn’t happen.”
