Leavenworth's protest of ICE prison in Kansas 'aggressive and unlawful,' DOJ says

Matthew Kelly, The Kansas City Star on Sep 24, 2025

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The U.S. Department of Justice is backing CoreCivic in its legal battle with the city of Leavenworth, Kansas, as the company seeks to reopen a shuttered prison it owns there as an immigrant detention center over the objection of local officials.

The DOJ filed a statement of interest in federal court on Tuesday, characterizing the city’s resistance as an illegal effort to undermine the federal government’s immigration enforcement.

“The United States submits this Statement of Interest to address an aggressive and unlawful effort by the City of Leavenworth, Kansas … to interfere with federal immigration enforcement,” begins the eight-page filing, signed by Brett Shumate, assistant attorney general over the DOJ’s Civil Division.

The DOJ filing was also signed by Deputy Assistant Attorney General Drew Ensign and Anthony Nicastro, acting director of the Office of Immigration Litigation.

The show of support for CoreCivic comes as the private prison company has suffered a string of legal defeats in Kansas state court in recent months.

Leavenworth District Court Judge John J. Bryant issued and upheld a temporary restraining order blocking CoreCivic from accepting detainees at the 1,033-bed facility under a contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement while the lawsuit plays out.

The case landed in Bryant’s courtroom after CoreCivic successfully argued that Leavenworth’s initial lawsuit in federal court lacked jurisdictional standing. But the company later filed its own claim in federal court against the city, alleging that local officials were unlawfully interfering with the federal government’s prerogative to control immigration policy.

The DOJ built off of that argument in its own filing, invoking the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which places federal laws above conflicting state and local laws.

“Defendants have violated the Supremacy Clause by attempting to stymie the Federal Government’s immigration-related operations at 100 Highway Terrace,” the filing states, referring to the address of CoreCivic’s Leavenworth facility. “Under the doctrine of intergovernmental immunity, the Constitution ‘prohibit[s] States from interfering with or controlling the operations of the Federal Government.’

“This foundational principle means that Defendants cannot regulate the United States’ contracts for private detention facilities,” the filing adds.

ICE prison lawsuit

In court filings and hearings, the city has argued that to maintain legitimacy, it must be allowed to enforce its own laws, including a 2012 ordinance that requires jail and prison operators to secure a special use permit before opening.

CoreCivic initially applied for a special use permit, but withdrew its application in March, saying it could operate the ICE detention center by right.

The facility at 100 Highway Terrace was previously operated as a private prison under contract with the U.S. Marshals Service through 2021, but a Joe Biden executive order barred the DOJ from renewing contracts with private prison companies.

Several previous efforts by CoreCivic to reactivate the prison in the years after its closure — including under an earlier proposed agreement with ICE — faced pushback from community members, in part because of the facility’s history of chronic violence, rampant drug use and dangerously low staffing levels.

CoreCivic attorney Taylor Concannon Hausmann argued during an August hearing that the local government’s adversarial stance toward CoreCivic reopening without a permit is “fueled by political discourse and polarization” over whether immigrant detainees should be brought to Leavenworth.

City officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday.

In an email statement, CoreCivic spokesperson Brian Todd thanked the DOJ for weighing in on the company’s behalf.

“CoreCivic appreciates the Department of Justice’s support as we continue to pursue all avenues to find a successful conclusion to this matter,” Todd said.