Senator questions why feds paid so much for Appleton immigrant detention center

A member of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs asked the Trump administration to preserve all records related to the federal government’s recent purchase of the Prairie Correctional Facility in Appleton. 

CoreCivic, a private prison company, was paid $496 million for the 1,600-bed facility after offering it to the state of Minnesota in May 2025 for just $75 million.

The Senate committee, where Democrats will soon be in the majority, is investigating whether Department of Homeland Security spending was “subject to improper influence, corruption, or other violations of federal law,” Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., wrote in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin on Wednesday. 

Hassan sent the letter about a week after Democrats swept the midterms, winning majorities in both chambers of Congress. Party leaders have promised investigations into alleged corruption by the Trump administration, and the letter signals that the Appleton immigrant detention center — which accepted its first detainees this week — is already under scrutiny. 

KARE11 obtained emails from May 2025 between CoreCivic and officials with the Minnesota Department of Corrections, in which the company offered to sell the prison to the state for $75 million. The feds then paid more than six times that to buy the facility this year.  

Hassan described the deal in the letter. 

“The transaction raises additional concerns about DHS stewardship of taxpayer dollars, particularly in light of recent findings by the Government Accountability Office that DHS has wasted millions of dollars on failed detention initiatives,” Hassan wrote. 

DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

NBC News reported earlier this year that Homeland Security advisor Corey Lewandowski requested payments from another private prison company, GEO Group, in exchange for steering contracts to the company. Lewandowski is now under criminal investigation for his role in doling out Homeland Security contracts. 

CoreCivic, which also won a five-year, $536 million contract to run the facility, donated half a million dollars to President Donald Trump’s inauguration.