News & Commentary

A former maximum-security prison in Leavenworth, Kansas, is now a critical hub in the Trump administration’s immigration detention machine, transforming in just a few months from a facility shuttered for its inhospitable conditions to a privately run jail holding hundreds of immigrants.

For Esmie Tseng, the communications director for the ACLU of Kansas, coverage of these city meetings sanitizes the reality for detainees. “We’re making a contract out of putting people in cages,” Tseng said. “This isn’t just moving widgets from one place to another, or manufacturing notebooks and pens. This is profiting off of people being put in cages.”

The American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas on the same day put out a call to action, encouraging supporters to send a message to the governor, urging her to commute all remaining death sentences. In 2024, the ACLU tried to abolish the death penalty in Kansas through litigation. Commuting Kansas death sentences helps “confront the criminal justice system’s deep failures and stop further injustice,” the organization said.

According to the ACLU of Kansas, between 80,000 and 100,000 of these devices are now installed across the country. The assumption that "out here" means unobserved is dead.

The Kansas American Civil Liberties Union stressed in a social media post last week that bystanders would only be able to record interactions by law enforcement outside of the 25-foot buffer zone.

But opponents like the ACLU of Kansas say it infringes on First Amendment rights.

The American Civil Liberties Union in 2024 attempted to abolish the death penalty in Kansas, citing its ineffectiveness in deterring crime and propensity for racial biases.

“The clemency process provides a second chance in a criminal legal system that has been shown to be overly punitive and devastating to families and communities,” the ACLU statement said. “This process includes careful consideration by the governor on a case by case basis.”

The bill’s passage has drawn opposition from groups like the ACLU and the Kansas Press Association, who says the bill will violate First Amendment rights. Critics say the vague writing of the bill will lead to legal battles over its enforcement.