Taxpayer-Funded ICE Prison in Kansas Could Detain Legal Residents, Citizens

The newly reactivated Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Leavenworth, Kansas, operated by private prison company CoreCivic, is drawing concern not just for its history, but for what it represents in the current political climate: the increasing detention of legal residents—and even U.S. citizens—under the Trump administration’s expanded immigration enforcement policies.

At $4.2 million a month, the Leavenworth facility is set to house up to 1,000 detainees, funded entirely by taxpayer dollars. Critics say this isn’t just an immigration enforcement measure—it’s a warning sign of broader civil rights violations in plain sight.

Since President Donald Trump’s return to office in January, immigration enforcement has intensified. Advocates, legal experts, and watchdog groups point to a growing list of cases where individuals with legal status—or full U.S. citizenship—have been detained, threatened with deportation, or stripped of rights without proper legal grounds.

Among the cases cited:

Mohsen Mahdawi, a green card holder and Columbia student, detained despite lawful status.
Rümeysa Öztürk, a Tufts student, allegedly targeted after publishing critical op-eds.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident with protection under “withholding of removal,” ignored by authorities.
Cynthia Olivera, a Canadian with a valid work permit.
Mahmoud Khalil, another Columbia student and green card holder.

Even more concerning is the administration’s stance on birthright citizenship, suggesting constitutional protections under the 14th Amendment may no longer be respected. Between 2015 and 2020, at least 70 U.S. citizens were wrongly deported, according to the Government Accountability Office. More recently, the administration has ramped up efforts at denaturalization, stripping citizenship from naturalized Americans for minor infractions.

This emerging pattern signals that no one is truly safe: not undocumented migrants, not lawful residents, and not even natural-born citizens.

So why build more prisons like the one in Leavenworth?

Supporters claim it’s about border control and national security. But opponents argue it reflects a deeper, more dangerous motive—the creation of a two-tiered society, where immigrants, regardless of legal status, live in fear, and entire communities are surveilled, detained, and deported with little recourse.

Leavenworth, a town with a long and complicated history with incarceration, finds itself once again at the center of a national debate. Once deemed a “hell hole” by a federal judge, the CoreCivic facility is now being funded at unprecedented levels thanks to Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill,” which significantly boosts ICE resources.

As detention becomes more indiscriminate, the question isn’t just how far the government will go, but how long Americans will tolerate a system that violates its own citizens’ rights in the name of security—and on their own dime.

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