CoreCivic inks new contract with ICE while awaiting legal decisions on Kansas prison
CoreCivic officials signed a new deal, effective Sept. 7, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement for its Midwest Regional Reception Center. (Morgan Chilson/Kansas Reflector)
TOPEKA — CoreCivic signed a new contract valued at $60 million a year with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to house migrant detainees at its Leavenworth facility, but the agreement won’t take effect until legal issues are resolved.
The company announced the new contract, which began Sept. 7, in a news release Monday. It replaces a six-month ICE contract in effect since March 7.
The new contract is for a fixed monthly amount and then additional payments based on the number of detainees held in the facility, which can house up to 1,033. It will not begin until the temporary injunction put in place by a Kansas district court is “no longer enforceable,” the release said.
CoreCivic and the city of Leavenworth have been arguing in court whether the Nashville-based private prison company must follow the city’s development process and apply for a special use permit before reopening.
As part of those court procedures, CoreCivic was stopped from taking ICE detainees until the legal disagreement was settled. CoreCivic is appealing that decision.
The press release said the company cannot predict if or when legal issues will be resolved.
The news release also announced a separate ICE contract for CoreCivic’s 2,560-bed California City Immigration Process Center, located in Kern County, California. Like Leavenworth’s Midwest Regional Reception Center, that facility has been vacant.
“Once fully activated, these two facilities are expected to generate combined annual revenue of nearly $200 million,” CoreCivic president and COO Patrick Swindle said in the news release. “While the intake process has been delayed at the Midwest Regional Reception Center, we will offer newly hired employees opportunities to be redeployed at our other activations until the legal challenges are resolved.”