By Morgan Chilson, Kansas Reflector
LEAVENWORTH — CoreCivic attorneys asked a Leavenworth District Court judge Wednesday to dismiss three counts in a case filed by the City of Leavenworth, pushing to end the court battle affecting its closed Leavenworth prison.
Leavenworth officials filed a case to keep the company from reopening its prison as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility until it had gone through the city’s development and planning process to receive a special use permit.
After hearing arguments, Judge John Bryant said he would take the issues under advisement. He gave no timeframe for when he would make a decision.
Before the hearing, about 60 people gathered outside the courthouse to protest the use of CoreCivic’s Midwest Regional Reception Center as an ICE facility.
“When we say we’re worried about the dehumanization of people inside the facility, when we say that we’re worried about the exploitation of workers, when we talk about life and death circumstances for everyone inside, the answer to those questions does not count in dollar amounts,” Esmie Tseng, spokeswoman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas, told those gathered.
Tseng said CoreCivic responds to most concerns by talking about the money the facility would bring to Leavenworth through employment and economic investment.
“Through their own actions the last 34 years, and especially the last six months, CoreCivic has left this community not enriched, but divided and confused,” she said. “They expect us all to have amnesia about their track record here, and then they muddy the waters with big financial promises.”
CoreCivic has committed to giving the city of Leavenworth $1 million up front when its facility opens and then annual payments of $250,000 to the city and $150,000 to the police department after that.
Bryant previously ruled that CoreCivic could not begin taking ICE detainees while the court case was being resolved.
A few jabs between opposing attorneys were the only highlights of the hearing, where CoreCivic attorney Taylor Hausmann and Leavenworth attorney William Hatley mostly reiterated arguments from earlier meetings.
Hausmann argued three issues before Bryant: that it wasn’t necessary for CoreCivic to apply for and obtain a special use permit, that the company should receive relief from an injunction that stops CoreCivic from reopening the facility without obtaining a permit and that there was no foundation to a public nuisance claim made by the city.
Hausmann’s said the city presents as fact that CoreCivic intends to but has not yet violated the development regulations by housing ICE detainees without getting a special use permit.
“I think if I understood your argument, you’re saying that just because the city believes that you may house the facility doesn’t mean that’s your stated intention, correct?” Bryant asked Hausmann. “But if that’s not your stated intention, then why are we here?”
“We are here because the city preemptively filed this lawsuit to attempt to enforce the outcome that it’s wanting,” she answered. “We would suggest it is premature. The city’s speculation that CoreCivic intends to violate the development regulations is flawed for two reasons.”
The city could not speak to CoreCivic’s intentions, Hausmann said, nor has it been determined that CoreCivic abandoned its use of the prison, which is why the city is demanding a special use permit.
At the end of the hearing, Bryant asked each party to send him a written statement within one week about whether the two cases filed in district court — one by CoreCivic and one by the city of Leavenworth — should be combined as they may address the same issues.
