Shuttered private jail in Kansas considers prison cells for Trump’s mass deportation plan

by Mary Sanchez, Missouri Independent
February 28, 2025

The immigrant detainee, a client of Rekha Sharma-Crawford, would have to be moved.

Chase County Detention Center was full.

Located in Cottonwood Falls, Kansas, it’s the largest detainee holding center in the region contracting with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.

Sharma-Crawford, a longtime immigration attorney, saw something more foreboding when she heard the recent news about her client: The Trump administration’s rhetoric promising mass deportations was taking shape.

“I think sweeps are increasing,” she said. “Clearly, more people are being detained.”

A database of ICE records lists the Chase County jail as having an average immigration-related census of about 79 people, as of Feb. 8, 2025.

As of Feb. 26, about 115 people were being held there with immigration-related issues.  The vast majority were Latino men listed as “deportable.”

Mexican, Honduran, Guatemalan, Venezuelan and Colombian were common nationalities. But people from a wide range of other nations were also detained and listed as deportable or being in the country without legal status, including India, Congo, China, Rwanda and Sudan.

County jails like Chase have long been where ICE holds people the agency plans to remove from the U.S.

Sharma-Crawford’s client was relocated to the Greene County Jail in Springfield, Missouri, which also is holding detainees for ICE.

President Donald Trump’s campaign promises of deporting all of the nation’s estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants, coupled with a lack of space for detainees, represents financial opportunity to privately operated prison companies.

CoreCivic, an owner/operator of prisons, is attempting to reopen a shuttered federal prison in Leavenworth as a detention center capable of holding about 1,000 immigrants for an average stay of 51 days.

Saturday, March 1, CoreCivic is holding an invitation-only luncheon and information session for stakeholders.

The meeting will be at the former Leavenworth Detention Center, a pretrial federal prison which the Biden administration closed in 2021 after problems with staffing, violations of detainees’ rights and safety issues, including attacks on guards. CoreCivic was its operator at that time.

“We would welcome the chance to speak with you directly and share some information about our company, the facility, and the positive impact we could have in the community,” the CoreCivic invitation reads.

The invitations were sent Feb. 21, the same day that CoreCivic applied for a special-use permit for the former prison.

Ryan Gustin, CoreCivic’s director of public affairs, signed the emailed invites, noting, “Our goal in all of this is to ensure we’re being as open and transparent as possible.”

The special-use permit must be considered by the Leavenworth Planning Commission and then the City Commission. The Planning Commission is scheduled to consider the special-use permit in a public hearing on April 7.

Leavenworth’s next City Commission meeting is March 11 and people are welcome to offer comments, limited to three minutes, said City Manager Scott Peterson. He noted that the City Commission is scheduled to begin formal consideration of the special-use permit on May 13.

The commission does need to give city staff approval to negotiate on any agreements that would be necessary between CoreCivic, the city and ICE, in the case that the special-use permit is approved.

Limited detention space might have kept the Trump administration from posting higher numbers of immigrants being held for deportation, according to a report by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.

That report found little evidence that immigration arrests and removals have increased over the Biden administration’s recent record, despite Trump’s heavy media campaign touting his intentions to deport record numbers.

During the first week of February, detainees were released when the government reached 109% of capacity, which is 38,521 beds.

But the numbers could rapidly escalate.

Sharma-Crawford noted that the U.S. Senate has approved $350 billion for immigration enforcement.

“If what they are waiting on is more capacity, then opening up Leavenworth is like turning the tap on,” she said.

CoreCivic’s application for a special-use permit immediately sent off alarm bells.

Immigrant rights advocates question if a rush to fill the space will unfairly sweep immigrants up, undercut their rights and deny them adequate legal representation.

Gustin, in an email, defended the Nashville-based company’s record, saying allegations of past problems of CoreCivic are used to “score political points.”

“The fact is we operate with significant oversight and accountability from our government partners and always have,” Gustin wrote.

CoreCivic describes its agreements with ICE as “A valued but limited role in America’s immigration system.”

In February, the publicly traded company’s CEO told investors that it was spending $40 million to upgrade some of its prisons in anticipation of new contracts with ICE as deportations increase.

The Intercept also reported that CoreCivic was looking at detaining immigrant families.

And it quoted CEO Damon Hininger saying that during his 32 years with the company, this “is truly one of the most exciting periods.”

Advocates for Immigrant Rights and Reconciliation and the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas are among those monitoring CoreCivic’s efforts to repurpose the Leavenworth site, efforts that began during the Biden administration.

Micah Kubic, executive director of the ACLU of Kansas, called out CoreCivic’s history as a prison operator, saying that it was notorious for violence and violations of human rights.

For-profit federal prison an understaffed ‘hell hole’ of violence, death and drugs

A 2017 audit was critical of the U.S. Marshals Service and its oversight of CoreCivic as the firm operated the Leavenworth Detention Center. The report, by the Office of Inspector General, U.S. Department of Justice, cited issues with understaffing, triple bunking inmates in cells meant for two and other issues that raised safety concerns.

“The executive orders that we’ve seen from the president the last couple of weeks are ones that are callous, chaotic, cruel, and that will absolutely translate into what they’re doing at this facility,” Kubic told KCUR’s “Up To Date.”

Trump took office in January and immediately began issuing executive orders on immigration. Those orders included halting the arrival of refugees, people who had already been approved and vetted for resettlement in the U.S., and ending the protected status of others, making them eligible for deportation, despite dangerous conditions in their home countries.

Federal judges have issued injunctions to at least temporarily halt many of the Trump initiatives.

An estimated 3.3 % of the U.S. population are undocumented immigrants.

Pew Research Center estimates that about one in 100 people in Missouri and nearly three in 100 in Kansas are undocumented.

On Tuesday, the Trump administration announced a plan to expect undocumented immigrants who are 14 and older to register with the federal government.

Failing to comply, which includes being fingerprinted and providing an address, would be punishable by a fine or imprisonment or both.

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem has emphasized that many of the administration’s efforts are in the hope that people will simply choose to leave the U.S., also known as self-deporting.

Noem filmed two advertisements. One focused on immigrants already in the U.S. and the other on those considering entering the country without the proper documents.

“If you come to our country and you break our laws, we will hunt you down,” Noem says in the video.

CoreCivic’s plans for a detention center, which it calls the Midwest Regional Reception Center, and concern about immigrant families being targeted were top of mind for many who attended a rally Feb. 23 in Kansas City.

The group represented a wide range of people — immigrants, people who were first and second generation, elected officials and others.

Speakers emphasized that diligence would be necessary to counter efforts to demonize and target immigrants.

Ivan Ramirez took the mic and encouraged continued engagement with community leaders and elected officials who identify as allies of the immigrant community.

“Our power comes when we come together,” Ramirez said.

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