ICE paid almost $500 million to acquire a private prison in Minnesota that was previously offered to the state for just $75 million, according to a report.
The immigration agency, which answers to the Department of Homeland Security, paid $495.6 million in August for the vacant Prairie Correctional Facility in small-town Appleton in response to President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration on the assumption that more holding space for inmates would be needed.
However, an investigation by Kare 11, citing newly unsealed emails, has found that the seller, Tennessee-based private prison operator CoreCivic, previously offered to sell the exact same facility to the state of Minnesota for just $75 million in May 2025.
That price even included upgrades to the facility, which was opened 34 years ago and has been closed for the last 16, but was capable of housing 1,600 inmates at its peak.
The state ultimately decided against the deal at the time on the basis that it might be difficult to staff Prairie Correctional given its remote location – a nearly three-hour drive from Minneapolis-St. Paul – and costly to build new homes to accommodate the approximately 500 employees required to run it, concerns seemingly not shared by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
READ HERE: https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/ice-minnesota-prison-purchase-b3076554.html