For Appleton, ICE contract signals jobs, but also uncertainty for some

A small Western Minnesota town is preparing for a major change.

Appleton has about 1,400 residents. Now, a private prison company says it has a deal with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to house up to 1,600 detainees.

Ryan Grant runs the Mid-Minnesota Lumber yard, including both before and after Core Civics closed the Prairie Correctional Facility back in 2010.

“It was pretty busy,” he said about the business before the prison closed. “And since they left, I feel that we’ve lost that, and I’m looking forward to it myself.”

Anyone can see what he’s talking about just by walking through an almost empty downtown: few businesses, fewer jobs, even less in the way of taxes to support the city’s services.

“A lot of people have…. have left, that I understand,” Grant said.

Over the years the city has worked to get the correctional facility re-opened. Nine years ago, it posed a petition to Change.org asking...