CURE is disappointed and alarmed that plans to reopen the Appleton, MN, prison as an ICE detention center appear to be moving forward. We saw this winter how ICE and its detention network are being used to systematically deprive people of their rights, often without regard to legal status. The Trump administration’s push for a vast private prison network erodes our democracy. We do not want the Appleton prison to become part of the ICE machine.
As rural Minnesotans, we care for our immigrant neighbors who are raising families, running businesses, and building lives in the small towns we call home. We recognize that they love these communities like we do. Many of us carry our own family histories of immigration to this place in search of a better life. As Americans, we have been appalled in recent weeks to witness the atrocities at the Delaney Hall ICE facility in New Jersey. No one is safer or better off when our government denies people their rights and due process under the law.
In terms of local impacts, a 1,600-bed ICE detention center would have serious consequences for Appleton, Swift County, and the broader region. Residents have not been given meaningful information to understand what is being proposed, who is making the decisions, or what costs the community may be expected to absorb. Residents haven’t been given adequate opportunity to ask questions or provide their views. We are concerned about the strain this facility could place on local housing, healthcare, emergency response, public safety, transportation, and other city and county resources. Rural communities should not be left to manage the fallout of federal detention expansion while private prison corporations garner all the benefits for their investors.
We call on ICE to cancel its plans for a detention center in Appleton, and on our local and state officials to intervene against this proposal using all tools at their disposal.
