ICE prison cleared to open in Leavenworth after arduous yearlong battle
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Leavenworth commission approved CoreCivic zoning permit after yearlong battle.
- Over 30 lawsuits: KU Med open-heart patients infected by contaminated devices; 11+ died.
- Jackson County prosecutor dropped 2024 second-degree murder charge Chiefs rally shooting
Greetings, Star readers.
Editor’s note: We weren’t able to send out last week’s Star Politics newsletter, which we led with transgender Kansans responding to a new law that will force them to replace their driver’s licenses. You can read that newsletter here. Sorry we missed you.
Today, we’re breaking down the Leavenworth City Commission’s decision to grant a zoning permit that clears the way for a private prison chain to open an ICE detention center after a bitter yearlong battle.
Next, we’ll get into:
• ‘Clear negligence’: More than 30 lawsuits allege that open-heart surgery patients at the KU Med contracted infections from contaminated surgical devices. At least 11 patients died.
• No murder charge?: Here’s why Jackson County Prosecutor Melesa Johnson says her office dropped a second-degree murder charge against the 2024 Chiefs Super Bowl rally shooter.
This week in politics
Over the angry objections of several hundred protesters from Kansas and Missouri who showed up to Tuesday evening’s meeting, the City Commission granted CoreCivic a special use permit by a vote of 4-1.
Since 2023, America’s largest private prison chain has attempted to cajole the community into supporting ICE detention at its rebranded Midwest Regional Reception Center through promises of job creation and economic vitality.
In the end, CoreCivic won over city leaders despite the emphatic opposition of outspoken residents and a year-long legal battle in which the company repeatedly argued that it should be allowed to reopen without a zoning permit.
“Over the past year, this process has been contentious. It has been political. And it has been very, very personal,” said Commissioner Holly Pittman, who voted to approve the zoning permit, but added that her vote “does not mean that the conduct that we saw over the past years from CoreCivic . . . was acceptable.”
Leavenworth resident Alida Kress said CoreCivic’s previous stint of operation in the city from 1992-2021 should have been reason enough to block the facility’s reopening.
“Leavenworth has welcomed them before and been betrayed by them before,” Kress said of CoreCivic during Tuesday’s meeting. “When they operated here, they cut costs, they lied, they understaffed, they neglected their inmates. They created an environment that fostered violence.”
Read my full story on the new Kansas ICE prison.
More from this past week
• The mood was tense in Leavenworth before, during and after the consequential vote, ending in at least two protesters being arrested Tuesday evening.
• Kansas City officials aren’t sold on Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe’s extraordinary plan to eliminate the state income tax. Mayor Quinton Lucas said the approach “hits working families hardest.”
• A Douglas County judge denied the ACLU’s motion for a restraining order that would have temporarily blocked the enforcement of Kansas’ new law policing transgender identity.
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This story was originally published March 12, 2026 at 5:51 PM.