WASHINGTON – With detention beds at full capacity, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is eyeing a long-shuttered prison in Appleton, Minnesota, as part of a massive expansion plan.

Since President Donald Trump took office in January, Appleton city officials have known that the Prairie Correctional Facility, a 1,600 private prison that has been shuttered since 2010, could be repurposed to hold detained immigrants.

Appleton City Administrator John Olinger said he’d been in talks about the future of the prison with Kelly Durham, managing director at CoreCivic, the company that owns the facility and 38 others across the United States.

Olinger said Durham told him last week that CoreCivic had not yet signed a contract with ICE that involves the Prairie Correctional Facility. But

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