WEC-ICE lawsuit questions asked and answered

McCOOK, Neb. - Last week, a lawsuit was filed by former State Senator DiAnna Schimek and 13 McCook residents against Governor Jim Pillen and the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services Director Rob Jeffreys.

The Gazette reached out to the Nebraska 13 for details and was referred to Robert McEwan of Nebraska Appleseed to address inquiries.

The questions posed were focused on the litigation’s ultimate goal. We asked what outcome the plaintiffs hoped to achieve through the lawsuit. We also asked how the matter might play out if the suit succeeded in winning an injunction to halt the WEC/ICE transition. The underlying question was whether the Legislature would respond any differently than the governor—a scenario many consider unlikely.

Most importantly, we asked what tangible benefit, if any, a successful injunction would bring to the City of McCook, Red Willow County or the state. Finally, we asked what a successful resolution would look like from the plaintiffs’ perspective.

In a friendly reply, Mr. McEwan responded, “We filed this lawsuit last week on behalf of 14 clients, primarily from McCook. This group of folks came together in a self-driven, organic way, because of their concerns with a large-scale detainment camp placed in their community. Our clients in this case care about their community and families, and feel the process to establish the large-scale detainment camp was not transparent and they did not have a chance to voice their concerns.

“The legal case ultimately seeks an injunction to stop the actions of the Governor and Dir. Jeffries [sic] from repurposing the WEC for immigrant detainment. We think this will benefit residents of McCook and Nebraska as a whole, because a large-scale detainment camp is not what Nebraskans want in their community or state. As said in their affidavits, our clients have a range of concerns, from harm to economic growth and property values to a damaging impact on children to harm to community reputation. I expect these are concerns that Nebraskans across the state would share, and would be alleviated by halting the changes to the WEC.“

McEwan concluded, “What would happen after a successful injunction would only be speculation that I don’t think we would engage in at this time. The goal of our clients remains to halt the establishment of a large-scale detainment camp in their community. “