Jerry Conlogue of Lincoln City, left, and Shelby Sprague of Corvallis hold signs along U.S. Highway 101 in front of Newport City Hall on Saturday to protest the possible presence of federal immigration agents or a detention center in the community. (Quinton Smith/Lincoln Chronicle)
By QUINTON SMITH/Lincoln Chronicle
NEWPORT – Christie Moore came from Clackamas County. Shelby Sprague arrived from Corvallis to stand alongside Jerry Conlogue of Lincoln City. Bernie and Craig Williams of Waldport were there too.
The five were among the estimated 600 people who lined U.S. Highway 101 in downtown Newport for two hours Saturday to protest the possibility of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security building an immigration detention center in Newport or housing agents or staff on the central coast.
The demonstration centered in front of Newport city hall and was organized by the Oregon Coast Indivisible Alliance and its chapters in Waldport, Lincoln City and Dunes City. The groups had tables with information and campaign buttons, a space for musicians to play, and volunteers who helped people cross the highway on a busy holiday Saturday.
Christine Moore of Boring came to Newport on Saturday to participate in the Oregon Coast Indivisible Alliance’s protest in Newport. (Quinton Smith/Lincoln Chronicle)Moore belongs to Indivisible’s Blackberry Alliance in the north Clackamas County communities of Happy Valley, Damascus and Boring. Her group was not holding a rally Saturday, so she made the drive to the coast.
“… I can’t think of a better place to be than to come here,” Moore said, as she rang a small bell on one hand, held a protest sign in the other and topped it off with a Christmas hat.
The unseasonably warm and dry December afternoon helped the mood of demonstrators, who chatted and talked and waved to drivers honking in support as they held signs denouncing Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The Williams have been to protests in Newport five times this year and Craig Williams attended the Waldport city council meeting last week where more than 100 people denounced the possibility of immigration agents renting motel rooms in that city.
Bernie Williams of Waldport and her husband, Craig, hold signs along U.S. Highway 101 in Newport on Saturday as part of In Oregon Coast Indivisible Alliance protest. (Quinton Smith/Lincoln Chronicle)Many – including the Williams — in the community are worried that Homeland Security is still looking to repurpose the U.S. Coast Guard’s 3-acre air facility at the Newport airport for a potential detention center.
“We here to protest against ICE facilities on the Oregon coast and we don’t want to see ICE agents in our hotels,” said Bernie Williams.
Conlogue has stood at the corner of Highway 101 and Northeast 22nd Street in Lincoln City to protest the actions of the Trump administration every day since April 12. He likens his one-hour vigil to the Speaker’s Corner in London’s Hyde Park.
So it was easy Saturday for Conlogue to come to Newport to let people affected by the immigration crackdown know what he thinks.
“I want to let people know they’re not alone,” he said.
- Quinton Smith is the editor of Lincoln Chronicle and can be reached at [email protected]
There is also a great number of people who want ICE to come to Lincoln County. It will be a boon to our economy.
I was at the protest and saw a few people sharing their disagreement by flipping us off; but just a few. The overwhelming majority showed support by honking, waving, thumbs up and saying thank you. We are lucky to live in a place and be surrounded by community worth fighting for.
None of you said anything when Biden and Democrats allowed 14 million illegals to invade our country. Even Europe is now taking action after recognizing the problems being created. A country must have secure borders. ICE will be in Newport even if they do not have a facility and your protests are bringing more attention to the area.
Your numbers are way off, way too high. https://www.factcheck.org/2024/02/breaking-down-the-immigration-figures/
The claim that such a facility’s location in the county would be a “boon” (no elucidation here, just innuendo. What kind of a boon {e: value, advantage}? Economic? Social? Cultural?) is demonstrably false based on evidence of such facilities’ effects on other communities in which they are located, and herein is simply an opinion made as a declarstive statement but with zero evidence offered in support of the ~opinion~. These facilities end up costing more for local law enforcement, create deleterious effects on adjacent residential areas, depress local business profits, negatively affect agricultural operations, and generally terrorize local communities that end up living in fear and disgust with the methodology. And in the case of a coastal resort area there would likely be a tourist backlash.
Economic research from a wide range of institutions indicates that mass detention and deportation of immigrants harms the U.S. economy. Studies project that such actions lead to significant GDP losses, widespread job cuts affecting both immigrant and U.S.-born workers, increased inflation, and substantial government costs. For me, having for profit concentration camps anywhere in our nation is not good for anybody.
These “projections” are based on numbers that will never materialize for “mass” deportations. If one can look past the manufactured hysteria one will realize even Trump cannot deport such a number of migrants/the undocumented that it will significantly harm and destroy the US. He is currently falling well short of his “one million” in a year deportation claim….and where was all this hysteria and protests when Obama was busy formally deporting over three million “community members”? This figure also doesn’t include what is referred to as ” returns” which would stack on another two million to Obama’s numbers….also the ACLU certainly wasn’t happy with Obama’s use of non-judicial fast track/rocket docket removals where speed is the objective. Trump actually lags behind previous administrations including Clinton and Bush for deportation numbers. The point is, many administrations have deported or returned millions of migrants across our borders….and have done what others consider unfair proceedings to deport/remove individuals from the US. Trump makes more of a show, but it doesn’t mean he will be more successful or different than administrations before him.
Those people are never at the demonstrations so I don’t think there are as many of them as you think.
By grabbing up people who would otherwise be working and spending money? And scaring tourists away who were thinking of spending money?
If economics the lens that you view everything through, including the safety and welfare of any people in our community, your soul is lost. These people are productive members of our community and do the work that surrounds and benefits us every day. Perhaps reflect on your many blessings rather than hatred and suspicion of the other. All our ancestors were the other to someone.
There is nothing positive for the people or businesses of Lincoln County if ICE establishes an identity here.
Absolutely. We might not be as boisterous as the opposition, but we are not an insignificant number.
It will trash the economy and then they’ll leave.
What people fail to recognize is that nobody is against immigration, only illegal immigration. Nobody is coming after immigrants that are here legally. Most of these protestors can’t understand the difference between legal and illegal. Yes there are many legal migrants working in the area, they have nothing to worry about. The fear mongers are convincing people there is no difference between legal and illegal. You want to come into this country do it the right way. For many decades legal migrants have been coming here to do seasonal work. ICE is not after these people. And if you are hiring illegal immigrants shame on you, that only hurts the one here legally. It’s too bad people can’t understand the difference.
There are definitely US citizens and others who are following the rules of the immigration process who are being detained and worse. ICE is routinely ignoring due process. Even if people are undocumented they often are contributing positively to our nation and are escaping terrible circumstance in their home countries. Blaming all our problems on undocumented immigrants is cruel and foolish.