A minimum-security state prison in the remote southwest corner of Nebraska reconfigured to serve as a federal immigration detention center began accepting detainees earlier this week, Gov. Jim Pillen said Thursday.
The Republican governor said the facility at McCook — a remote city of about 7,000 people in the middle of wide-open prairies between Denver and Omaha — had between 50 and 60 immigrant detainees as of Thursday. The facility should be at capacity — currently 200 — by Thanksgiving, Pillen said.
