APPLETON, Minn.—A small crowd gathered outside the Appleton Civic Center late in the day on Saturday, Sept. 17, to protest the re-opening of a previously-closed, privately-owned prison on the town’s outskirts as an ICE detention facility.
The 1,600-bed facility, formerly known as the Prairie Correctional Facility, was Minnesota’s sole for-profit detention center before its closing in 2010. It was sold by private prison giant CoreCivic to the Department of Homeland Security earlier this year. In turn, on Aug. 5, the DHS later granted a contract worth $500 million to CoreCivic to operate the center as a holding facility for ICE detainees.
The center will re-open in the fall of 2026, and the contract from DHS is set to last until 2031.
CoreCivic is the largest owner of private prisons in the U.S. It operates facilities in 20 states as well as the District of Columbia and has a well-documented record of accusations and inquiries related to physical abuse of inmates, forced labor, understaffing, and overpopulation.
A handful of CoreCivic’s facilities have sat empty for years, with the Appleton facility being one of several the company has sold to the DHS in the past year. The Leavenworth Midwest Regional Reception Center in Kansas was sold for $238 million the very same week as the Appleton center.
A second duo of prisons—the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego and the California City Detention Facility in Kern County, Calif.—were sold in July 2026 to DHS, with contracts worth approximately a combined $1.5 billion.
The sale of these facilities represents a significant push by the federal government and the Trump administration to expand its capacity to carry out its campaign of violence and deportation against immigrants.
During a town hall in Appleton on Aug. 20, residents voiced their concerns to State Rep. Paul Anderson, R-District 12A. Economic anxiety and precarity was a central topic of discussion. CoreCivic had previously paid taxes to the city for maintaining the building despite its disuse, representing approximately 30% of the town’s tax base. Federal government buildings, however, are tax-exempt, meaning that income would disappear.
“People and the media are heavily focused on the perceived economic benefits for the town,” claimed a protester who spoke to People’s World but wished to remain anonymous. “However, those benefits will be short-lived. The gas stations and liquor stores will be happy with the increased business, but rents will go up, which will price out people who have lived here for decades.
“And what happens if a new administration comes in and shuts things down without compensating the town? We won’t even have the tax revenue that we used to, and the government won’t have the same obligations to us.”
CoreCivic recently offered the town of Appleton $1.2 million per year to make up for the loss in tax revenues. Demonstrators were skeptical that the private prison giant would follow through on a non-binding promise, however, and said the town should not desire temporary enrichment at the expense of immigrants. This sentiment was not shared by Rep. Anderson.
“They’re not going to stop the national trend of detaining people and deporting folks that are not here legally. So, you know, let’s work together and make this a positive thing economically for Appleton, even if you don’t agree with what’s happening there,” the state lawmaker said.
Other Minnesota elected officials have also weighed in on the re-opening.
State Rep. Michelle Fischbach, R-District 7 expressed her support for the ICE detention conversion at the same town hall. “I know that the community has been very supportive of making sure that we can open that up, and it makes sense,” she said. “There’s an existing facility there, and so there doesn’t have to be anything new built.”
Erik Osberg, a Democrat challenging Fischbach for her seat in the 2026 midterms, made the connection to how private, for-profit prison corporations make money by exploiting economically precarious, often rural areas. He pointed out how money and those interests are tied to legislation, especially last year’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” which provided $75 billion to ICE.
“There’s a $180 billion detention center and deportation-industrial complex in that legislation,” Osberg said. “That’s what this is about, and guess who gets to build and run them? Private companies.”
While several of the protesters at the civic center rally were hopeful that the Republican Party and MAGA will lose political power in the 2026 midterm and the 2028 general election, they also stressed that any new administration must deliver humane and fully transparent immigration policy, enshrine it in the Constitution so that it cannot simply be rolled back, and put an end to violent, draconian enforcement.
“There needs to be a restructuring of the immigration system, not just hand-waving or half-baked measures,” explained one local holding a “Jesus was an immigrant” sign.
“Christians who are on board with what’s happening, they’re Christian-nationalists, not ‘real’ Christians. We must love and treat immigrants as we would ourselves.”
While many passersby honked or cheered in solidarity, a few hurled insults or made vulgar gestures at the group. One individual in a red sports car drove by twice to jeer. The protest, which is a weekly affair, moved from its previous location at the Flags of Honor Memorial, closer to the prison, after an incident with physically aggressive counter-protesters.
The Appleton protests are scheduled to continue for the foreseeable future, every Thursday from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m., outside of the Appleton Civic Center. People are welcome to travel out to stand in solidarity with protesters and immigrants, organizers says, and to bear witness to what is happening on the prairie.
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