The Leavenworth City Commission voted 4-1 to approve CoreCivic, a previously privately-run prison, to obtain a special-use permit on March 10, allowing it to reopen as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement Detention Center. The permit, however, allows CoreCivic to reopen with 17 city-regulated conditions.

According to the American Civil Liberties Union, Former President Joe Biden issued Executive Order 14006, which aims to “phase out” private prisons, shutting CoreCivic in 2021. However, President Donald Trump reversed this executive order in 2025, and as the focus turns to immigration enforcement, Leavenworth Mayor Nancy Bauder said that the CoreCivic administration wanted to immediately open an ICE Detention Center despite receiving numerous safety concerns when they were originally a prison.

“There were a lot of problems in the prison, and a lot of drugs, abuse, overcrowding, understaffing …our police officers were being called out there many times during the year. We were glad to see them close,” Bauder said.

CoreCivic, who did not respond to a request for comment at the time of publication, wanted to reopen, but needed to obtain a permit because of a city ordinance created in 2012. Mayor Pro Tem Rebecca Hollister said the city filed an adjudication against CoreCivic when they refused to apply for the permit in 2025. After a year-long battle with the city, Core-Civic applied in March 2026.

“We wanted there to be conditions attached to the permit for their operations,” Hollister said. “There are 17 conditions that they have to follow, which is a victory [for the city], because originally they were not going to have a permit at all.”

Bauder said she voted yes because she was worried that the federal government would gain control of the facility and the city would not have any way of regulating the treatment and safety inside the facility.

“We have to do what we have to do to defend the city here. That’s why we voted the way we did. If we didn’t let them do this, it could be [that] we have no oversight at all. If the federal government bought the building, they’d have no oversight, just like the federal prison,” Bauder said.

City Manager Scott Peterson said the city’s fight was never to keep CoreCivic from reopening, but rather that they meet six requirements attached to the permit regarding zoning and infrastructure, named the Golden Factors.

“It irks me when I see people out there saying, ‘Oh, the city lost its fight, or the city gave up its fight.’ No, the city won its fight. We made them go through the process, and they did. All we did was apply our required zoning laws to the special use permit, which is all that we asked them to do,” Peterson said.

Hollister, the only commissioner to vote against granting the special use permit, said she was worried that the permit regulations did not give as much oversight on the detention center as she wanted.

“I still had a couple outstanding issues about future potential litigation … The permit was vague in a couple of spots,” Hollister said. “I really voted no, because I didn’t feel I had enough clarification on those issues.”

The given permit requires the city and CoreCivic to establish a corrections oversight committee to ensure compliance with the permit and due process treatment for all staff and detainees inside the facility. After touring the facility, Peterson said it includes chapel rooms, recreational facilities and personal TVs, even though it used to be a prison.

“These aren’t dangerous criminals, and so our understanding from CoreCivic is that they’re not going to be walking around with shackles. They’ll be pretty much allowed free range facility, so long as they behave,” Peterson said.

According to the commission’s regular meeting notes, there were 62 public comments and two arrests, of which 51 were in opposition to CoreCivic. Hollister said the public was mostly against reopening the center, including all of the commissioners, but the city voted to make sure they had control, not because they were in favor of having the facility.

“The consequences of denying this outright could have been pretty severe. We would have gotten in a pretty hefty lawsuit with CoreCivic and probably not have won. CoreCivic could have sold themselves to the federal government, and we would not have had any oversight,” Hollister said.

Hollister said that all the commissioners who voted yes received death threats from the public in opposition to having the facility. She said she believes that the people sending the threats misunderstood why the city had to vote yes to granting the permit.

Bauder said she hopes those people learn and get involved in government policy. She said she urges students to register to vote and learn about government policies.

“I could not get good people who are passionate about our city to run for office. So that’s why I encourage people who feel strongly about removing the facility to run for office,” Bauder said. “It’s so important for students to understand how the government works and get involved in it.”

Looking ahead, Bauder said that once Trump leaves office, focus and funding for ICE will likely be less prevalent. She said she hopes this will be a temporary facility and expects CoreCivic to shut down again.

“What they’ve been doing is going to be cut way back, and we may not even have that many people here. They could turn into another prison, but that would just be between them and us to make sure that they are treating anybody in there with respect and dignity,” Bauder said.

This story was originally published on Free Press on May 12, 2026.