Senator McKinney says NDCS lacked authority to contract McCook camp to ICE

Senator McKinney used floor time during debate on LB 10‑71 to call attention to a separate contracting matter: he said the Department of Correctional Services (NDCS) negotiated a contract with the Department of Homeland Security/ICE to repurpose the McCook work‑ethic camp as a detention facility without legislative authorization.

McKinney argued the statute creating the Department of Correctional Services (Neb. Rev. Stat. 83‑171) authorizes the department to maintain and administer correctional facilities and programs but does not grant authority to enter into this type of contract. He invoked Article IV, section 19 of the Nebraska Constitution to argue control of penal institutions is a legislative prerogative and said the executive branch could not unilaterally grant NDCS contracting authority for an ICE facility.

He estimated the contract was for roughly $14 million and said the state had received about $4 million so far; he warned that repurposing the camp would remove a rehabilitative transition option for people leaving corrections programming. “If you look at what happened in Florida…good luck on getting the other 10,” he said, describing concerns about relying on projected federal reimbursement.

The transcript records McKinney’s assertion and statutory citation but does not include a departmental response or a legal determination on the claim. The legislature later recessed without a vote on an action tied to this matter in the provided excerpt.

What’s next: The issue as raised could prompt formal questions to NDCS, requests for legal opinions, or a legislative review of contracting authority; no follow‑up action is recorded in the excerpt.