David Mourer and his niece Rena Mourer visit the entrance to "Alligator Alcatraz" at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport on July 12, 2025, in Ochopee, Florida. Members of Congress were given their first visit to the new state-managed immigration detention facility in the Florida Everglades that officials have named “Alligator Alcatraz.” (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
LINCOLN — Nebraska reportedly is being considered as a home to one of the state-run, federally funded migrant detention centers that U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem hopes to launch across the country in the likeness of “Alligator Alcatraz.”
Noem, in an interview with CBS News published Monday, said she hopes to establish a handful of similar detention centers near airports and jails in other states in the coming months, using Florida’s so-called “Alligator Alcatraz” in the Everglades as a model. She said she had already appealed to governors and state leaders.
And CBS said potential sites already under consideration include Nebraska, Arizona and Louisiana.
Many states that support President Donald Trump’s mission of securing the border have empty or underused prison-like facilities, Noem noted. She said locations Homeland Security is considering are by airports and runways, which she said would help cut costs through “quick turnarounds.” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operates under the umbrella of Homeland Security.
State-owned property that could fit her site preferences could include land near the Omaha Correctional Center by Eppley Airfield and the Nebraska National Guard base near the Lincoln airport.
Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen’s office shared a statement Tuesday, saying that his team “continues to be in communication with federal partners on how Nebraska can best assist in these efforts.”
Pillen spokeswoman Laura Strimple said the governor is “staunchly committed to keeping Americans safe, our nation’s borders secure” and getting criminals “off our streets.”
She said it was premature to comment on potential detention operations, adding: “Gov. Pillen will make details public at the appropriate time.”
Noem’s strategy reportedly builds upon the “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration detention center that opened last month at a jetport in the South Florida marshlands. It was built in just days and has the capacity to house 3,000 migrants.
The effort would be assisted by the $45 billion set aside for ICE in President Donald Trump’s recently adopted “big beautiful bill.”
Nebraska State Sen. Terrell McKinney of North Omaha, a legislative watchdog on criminal justice issues, criticized the notion of Nebraska as a host site.
“The idea of Nebraska operating a state-run detention facility is crazy and should not move forward,” he said. “Our focus should be on addressing the current budget deficit and reversing the decline of our state’s economy, both of which will only worsen with proposals like this.”
McKinney said that under the Trump administration, “enforcement efforts have expanded far beyond individuals labeled as criminals.”
“Many law-abiding immigrants are being unjustly detained and torn away from their families,” he said.
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