Pillen faces blowback on Nebraska immigration stance, releases ‘Pillen Playbook 2.0’ platform

Nebraska Examiner · Zach Wendling · September 9, 2026

Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen, right, hosts a general election kickoff event where he confirmed he is sticking with his running mate, Lt. Gov. Joe Kelly, for another four years on Aug. 25, 2026, in Lincoln. To Pillen's right are first lady Suzanne Pillen, Kelly and Kelly's wife Susie. (Photo by Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner) LINCOLN — Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen is facing pushback from the challengers to his reelection bid over his immigration stance as a new Flatwater Free Press investigation states his family ag operation has long hired undocumented laborers.

The Flatwater report , released Wednesday in partnership with The New York Times, states Pillen’s hog business has employed migrant workers for more than a decade, some of whom are in the country legally and others who are not. The Flatwater story says it confirmed the reporting with state and federal court records and interviews with more than 40 current and former employees, prosecutors, immigration lawyers and community organizers.

Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen speaks with state Sen. Mike Jacobson of North Platte (obscured) at a general election kickoff event where he confirmed he is sticking with his running mate, Lt. Gov. Joe Kelly, for another four years on Aug. 25, 2026, in Lincoln. (Photo by Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner) The challengers to Pillen’s reelection each argued Wednesday that the investigation shows Pillen plays by “his own set of rules.”

Hours after the investigation was released, Pillen’s campaign released “ Pillen Playbook 2.0 ,” an updated policy wishlist. It’s a play on Pillen’s having been a defensive back for the Huskers in the 1970s.

The memo mentions immigration once, with no specifics: “Eliminate state taxpayer benefits for illegals.”

Pillen and family company respond

According to Flatwater, Pillen Family Farms and an official spokesperson for Pillen said neither the company nor the governor “knowingly hired an illegal immigrant.”

Laura Strimple, Pillen’s spokesperson, told Flatwater the governor “went above and beyond the legal requirements to verify the immigration status of his employees” and that he “has the strongest immigration record in Nebraska history.”

Nearly one year ago, at Pillen’s direction, the director of the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services signed a contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to convert a state prison in McCook into a new ICE holding facility. Pillen and federal officials dubbed the rebranded Work Ethic Camp the “Cornhusker Clink.”

“We want President Trump to know that Nebraska is supportive and grateful for his ongoing, critical work with Secretary (Kristi) Noem to arrest and deport criminal, illegal aliens,” Pillen said in an Aug. 19, 2025, statement when he announced the Nebraska-ICE partnership .

Nebraska Lt. Gov. Joe Kelly, left, looks to his running mate, Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen, as he speaks at a general election kickoff event after confirming Kelly will be staying on the Pillen-Kelly ticket for another four-year term on Aug. 25, 2026, in Lincoln. (Photo by Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner) Pillen and Corrections Director Rob Jeffreys also fought back against a lawsuit, mostly from McCook residents, challenging their authority to convert the prison without legislative approval. A judge upheld Pillen’s discretion . Advocates are appealing to the Nebraska Court of Appeals.

At a campaign event in late August in Lincoln, Lt. Gov. Joe Kelly, a longtime prosecutor who is Pillen’s homeland security adviser, did not reference the McCook facility but did praise Pillen for twice deploying Nebraska National Guard soldiers to the U.S.-Mexico border

“We found some great Nebraska soldiers who were willing to do that, and it was very helpful to that overall effort to do and give us what we’ve got today: a border where people aren’t climbing over those fences every five minutes like they were years ago,” Kelly said at the time.

Pillen’s campaign manager described Flatwater’s investigation as “nothing more than a political hit piece from the New York Times targeting the Pillen family, their business and Nebraska agriculture.”

“As governor, Jim Pillen has a proven record fighting back against illegal immigration, supporting security operations at the border and getting dangerous criminal illegal aliens out of our communities,” the campaign manager said.

‘His own set of rules’

Former state Sen. Lynne Walz of Fremont, Pillen’s Democratic opponent this fall, said the Flatwater investigation outlines Pillen’s “latest con.” She asserted, as she has before, that Pillen has been “enriching himself and his friends since day one, and this falls right into the pattern.”

“When the cameras are off, the rules don’t seem to apply to him,” Walz said in a statement. “He’s built a career holding other people to standards he won’t keep himself. When it’s his farm, his business, his bottom line — suddenly the rules have a lot more flexibility.”

Walz said she would be a governor “who actually is what they say they are.”

Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen of Columbus, a Republican, bottom left, is running for reelection against former Democratic state Sen. Lynne Walz of Fremont, bottom right, Rick Beard of Omaha, the nominee for the Legal Marijuana NOW Party, top left, and former state Sen. Brett Lindstrom of Omaha, the nominee for the America First Party, top right. (Photos courtesy of the candidates/campaigns | Nebraska Capitol photo by Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner) Former state Sen. Brett Lindstrom of Omaha, who is running for governor as the America First Party nominee, said in a social media post Wednesday that he read the “disturbing” story but is “not at all surprised. This is exactly who Governor Jim Pillen is.”

“He plays by his own set of rules while holding the rest of the state to a different standard. If this is how he has run his business for decades, how has he been running the state the last 3.5 years?” Lindstrom wrote.

Lindstrom ran against Pillen for the GOP nomination in 2022. He later switched to nonpartisan earlier this year before switching to the America First Party to revive his gubernatorial bid.

Rick Beard, who is the gubernatorial nominee for the Legal Marijuana NOW Party, said that if people are “actually serious” about border control, then corporate owners and leadership need to be held criminally accountable for their illegal practices.

“Making them accountable removes the engine creating unauthorized workforces in the first place,” Beard said in an email to the Nebraska Examiner. “Our culture of excusing corporate crimes while calling those crimes a necessity to do business has to end. No one is above the law in the state of Nebraska.”

‘Pillen Playbook 2.0’

Walz and Lindstrom have each released their own platforms. Walz’s is “ Lynne’s Commitment to Nebraskans ,” and Lindstrom’s is the “ Nebraska Doctrine .” Beard, while he does not have a set policy document, has called for a state-run medical cannabis program , among other priorities.

Among the new items in Pillen’s “Playbook 2.0” released Wednesday:

Lower property insurance rates.

Stop hedge funds from buying up Nebraska homes.

Eliminate toxins in food and water.

Protect the Ogallala aquifer.

Protect the integrity of elections and reform the “broken ballot petition process.”

Counter aggression from the Chinese Communist Party and other foreign adversaries.

Ensure all third graders can read at grade level.

Reform K-12 funding to have the state take on more of the burden of educating children.

Expand trade opportunities for agricultural products.

Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen speaks with reporters after hosting a kickoff event where he confirmed he is sticking with his running mate, Lt. Gov. Joe Kelly, for another four years on Aug. 25, 2026, in Lincoln. (Photo by Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner) As with policy platforms released by other gubernatorial candidates this year, Pillen’s campaign does not state exactly how he would achieve or fund the ideas in his “playbook.”

Said Pillen: “The new Pillen Playbook is about my commitment to the people of our state: making Nebraska more affordable, defending the values that make our state extraordinary, investing in our kids and workforce and protecting the land, water and communities we are proud to call home.”

Beard, responding to Pillen’s policy platform, described the updated Pillen platform as “all hat and no cattle.” Beard said his proposals, to grow Nebraska’s own food and produce new revenue with cannabis and industrial hemp, would clean Nebraska’s soil and provide new rural opportunities.

Lindstrom said in a text that “what’s most striking” about the document “is what’s missing.”

“There’s no mention of Nebraska’s budget crisis, the hundreds of millions of dollars in shortfalls or any accountability for the decisions made over the last three and a half years that helped put us here,” Lindstrom said. “Nebraskans don’t need a recycled playbook of promises. They deserve an honest assessment of where we are today and a real plan to fix it.”

Walz had no immediate comment on the “Pillen Playbook 2.0.”

The general election is Nov. 3.

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1:30 pm Editor’s note: This story has been updated with comment from Gov. Jim Pillen’s campaign manager.

Read the full story at Nebraska Examiner