A banner near the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus on March 16, 2025. (Juan Salinas II/Nebraska Examiner)
OMAHA — Nebraska immigrant advocates and elected officials are among those criticizing the state’s decision to host a federal detention center for migrants — and the flippant nickname the Trump administration gave the facility.
“The so-called ‘Cornhusker Clink’ — if that name doesn’t demonstrate the dystopian nightmare in which we now find ourselves, I don’t know what does,” says Kevin Abourezk, a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe who was among protestors outside of Gov. Jim Pillen’s Office when details were announced.
“It’s meant to be funny, but in this context it is actually terrifying,” said the longtime Lincoln-based journalist. “It’s like they’re not human to them.”
Roger Garcia, the Democratic chairman of the Douglas County Board, which governs the most populous county in the state, took to social media to express concern.
“They create cute names for their pursuit of furthering their aggressive, callous efforts,” Garcia said of the federal nickname for the McCook Work Ethic Camp that is to be converted into a 300-bed immigration detention center. He referred also to the “Alligator Alcatraz” name Republicans gave the detention center in the Florida Everglades.
“But woe to you who laugh now and to those who use your power to harm instead of nurture harmony and compassion in our society,” said Garcia.
Garcia had a relative apprehended in an Omaha worksite raid in June and has been a vocal critic of ICE detaining “parents working to feed their children, community members that have been here for decades.”
Pillen not worried
A spokesperson for Pillen on Wednesday defended the Cornhusker Clink nickname and Pillen’s broader approach of supporting President Donald Trump in his campaign pledge to execute the largest deportation operation in American history.
Pillen told Fox News on Wednesday, “The bottom line is: We’re not worried about names. We’re worried about supporting and doing our fair share.”
He talked about how he and other Republican governors have heard “loud and clear” Trump’s call to “step up.” He said he was “really, really proud” to empower the state’s National Guard, State Patrol and Department of Correctional Services to become a part of Trump’s deportation mission.
Many Republican state senators in the officially nonpartisan Nebraska Legislature have expressed support for the governor’s stance, including State Sen. Rob Clements, chair of the Legislature’s budget-writing Appropriations Committee.
State Sen. Megan Hunt of Omaha posted on social media site X that “using ‘Cornhusker’ to brand an ICE detention camp is a disgrace” — and called for action by the University of Nebraska.
“The University of Nebraska enforces its trademark all the time,” she said. “Why not now?”
‘Symbol of pride’
Hunt, a progressive nonpartisan who has clashed before with Pillen on immigration, wrote that NU had built its reputation around “Cornhusker,” which she described as “a symbol of pride, community and the hardworking spirit” of Nebraska.
She said the term belongs to Nebraskans, not to ICE, Pillen or a detention facility that she said would “separate families and harm our immigrant neighbors.”
“Cornhusker should never be associated with incarceration, cruelty or state-sanctioned violence,” Hunt wrote. “To remain silent is to allow Nebraska’s most cherished identity to be co-opted for purposes that betray our values.”
The NU Board of Regents owns the trademark to the plural version of “Cornhuskers” and other related terms largely around Huskers athletics at the flagship Lincoln campus, like “Go Big Red.” Pillen previously served as an elected member of the regents and played defensive back for the Huskers.
The Nebraska Legislature dubbed Nebraska “The Cornhusker State” in 1945.
An NU spokesperson told the Examiner on Wednesday that while NU has certain legal protections, including for any use of phrases that would imply an NU endorsement or connection, the State of Nebraska can use the term for official state business. She also noted that many Nebraskans have informally used the “Cornhusker” label to describe themselves and their heritage.
The spokesperson added: “The University of Nebraska has had no role in the planning, naming or future operation of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility at the McCook Work Ethic Camp and learned of it only through the federal announcement.”
Corn cob caricature
The nickname headlined the news release announcing the immigration detention center Tuesday from the Department of Homeland Security.
On its government X account, Homeland Security posted a caricature of ears of corn with black ICE hats on in a field near a jail yard.
Marty Ramirez, co-founder of the statewide immigrant advocacy group Las Voces, took issue with State Patrol and National Guard resources aimed at immigrants. But he says he believes “messing with the Cornhusker” name will backfire in prompting community backlash beyond immigration advocates.
“Nebraska — the good life — now equals militarized and politicized,” he said.
Ramirez and others noted how state officials say that criminals will be housed in the detention facility. He pointed out that many people in ICE custody today face civil administrative charges, not criminal.
For example, the June 10 ICE-led immigration raid at Omaha’s Glenn Valley Foods plant led to the detention of 75 to 80 undocumented workers at a North Platte facility. ICE officials said the worksite operation stemmed from a federal criminal search warrant looking for more than 100 individuals believed to have worked using stolen U.S. identities.
But according to available federal court records, it appears only one of the detained workers has been criminally charged for using the Social Security number of a U.S. citizen. Immigration judges who granted bond to several of the workers noted they had no criminal past.
Who decides?
Abourezk said the use and definition of the term criminal appears to be expanding by the day.
For that matter, he asked, “Who decides who is an immigrant? We live in a nation of immigrants except for our indigenous people. This administration seems to focus only on the brown ones.”
The Center for Immigrant and Refugee Advancement also evoked the ‘Good Life’ theme.
“Detaining our neighbors in our own backyard doesn’t make Nebraska safer,” said Roxana Cortes-Mills, legal director of the nonprofit that provides attorneys for ICE detainees. “We’ve seen the damage detention causes when families are separated, people are cut off from their lawyer and children are left wondering when their parents will come home.”
The Nebraska Commission on Latino-Americans, whose nine members are appointed by the governor, said in a statement Wednesday it also was concerned with the message the decision to host the detention facility sends locally and nationally.
“It is profoundly disappointing to consider that Nebraska may increasingly be viewed as a ‘Midwest hub of incarceration,’” said the statement issued by executive director Maria Arriaga for the commission. “Such an association risks diminishing the values of openness and justice that many Nebraskans hold dear.”
The commission urged elected officials and decision makers to reflect on the long-term impact and “prioritize solutions that honor human dignity and social cohesion.”
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