First detainees arrive at Appleton immigrant detention center

The first detainees have arrived at the Appleton Detention Facility, Minnesota’s only immigrant detention center, according to local activists. 

Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed the facility opened on Monday in a statement provided to the Star Tribune. 

“(The Department of Homeland Security) opened the Appleton Detention Facility on Nov. 9 to strengthen America’s ability to enforce its immigration laws and carry out the American people’s mandate for mass deportations,” the statement read.

ICE did not respond to multiple emails from the Reformer. 

Local observers saw buses arrive at the detention center on Monday and a heightened security presence, according to Misty Butler of the Prairie Alliance for Human Dignity, an activist organization opposed to the opening of the detention center and President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts. 

The Appleton detention center, formerly the Prairie Correctional Facility, is the first detention center in Minnesota. Until now, immigrant detainees have been held in local jails or shipped to out-of-state detention centers.

The Department of Homeland Security purchased the 1,600-bed former prison in August from the private prison company CoreCivic for $496 million — more than six times the property’s assessed value of $75 million, according to county records. 

KARE11 obtained emails from May 2025 between CoreCivic and officials with the Minnesota Department of Corrections, in which CoreCivic offered to sell the prison to the state for $75 million. The state declined the offer. 

Homeland Security is also paying CoreCivic $536 million over the next five years to operate the detention center. 

CoreCivic runs some of the country’s largest and most infamous immigrant detention centers, including the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas, which holds families with children, including, at one time, little Liam Conejo Ramos. Disease outbreaks, lack of medical care, inedible food and lack of outside time are common complaints of detainees.

The Prairie Alliance for Human Dignity, Appleton residents and a number of progressive organizations will hold a press conference, vigil and rally outside the detention center on Saturday afternoon.