LINCOLN — Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen's administration volunteered last month to turn over a state prison to the federal government to serve as America's latest immigration detention center, state officials told lawmakers in a closed-door briefing Thursday.

State officials proactively reached out to the Department of Homeland Security and offered Nebraska as a potential home to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement jail after President Donald Trump signaled support for more ICE detention facilities following the ill-fated July opening of the so-called "Alligator Alcatraz" in the Florida Everglades.

That's according to two Democratic lawmakers who attended Thursday's closed-door briefing with Nebraska's lieutenant governor and at least three other members of Pillen's cabinet, including Rob Jeffreys, the director of Nebraska's prison system.

"That's my understanding," said Sen. Wendy DeBoer of Bennington, the vice chair of the Legislature's Judiciary Committee, which was briefed Thursday afternoon on the so-called "Cornhusker Clink" following days of back-and-forth between Democrats and Republicans over whether Pillen's plan to turn the McCook prison over to ICE should be the subject of a public hearing.

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