Dave Koester of Newport organized fellow pilots last November to paint a large “No ICE” sign on the side of his hanger at the Newport airport to protest the possibility of the Department of Homeland Security using the Coast Guard air facility as an immigrant detention center. (Shayla Escudero/Lincoln Chronicle)By MAXINE BERNSTEIN/The Oregonian/OregonLive
Portland’s mayor and a city councilor announced on Monday they’re contributing a total of $20,000 out of their office budgets to support the city of Newport’s legal fight to bar a federal contractor from opening an immigration detention center at or near the Newport airport.
“Newport’s fight is Oregon’s fight,” Mayor Keith Wilson said Monday. “This facility would have consequences far beyond Newport.”
The contributions – $10,000 from the Portland mayor’s office budget and $10,000 from Councilor Steve Novick’s office budget – were made in direct response to a formal request from Newport Mayor Jan Kaplan. The city of Newport has spent more than $300,000 in its legal challenge and raised $50,000. Other communities – including Ashland, Yachats and Benton County – also have donated money.
“Just as we share resources with other communities when they’re fighting fires, we should help to make sure Newport has the legal resources it needs to fight ICE,” Novick said. He said when he heard that Wilson’s staff was going to put up a $20,000 contribution, he decided he could share the cost from his office budget.
For Novick, he said the issue is personal.
“Like many Oregonians, one of my connections to Newport is going to visit Keiko the killer whale of the Newport Aquarium in the late ’90s. … Keiko was a sweet, gentle soul who loved people, and I’m sure that he would have been appalled by ICE. And I’m sure that he would smile at what we’re doing here today.”
A federal immigration official confirmed earlier this year that the Trump administration was eyeing a Newport air facility for a temporary detention center and had started an environmental analysis. It scrapped the idea when relocation of a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter to make way for the project raised a public furor.
Ralph Ferguson, acting assistant director for operations support at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said the agency hasn’t ruled out the possibility of reviving the plan. In a statement filed to U.S. District Court Judge Ann Aiken in Eugene earlier this year, Ferguson outlined the agency’s current position: “ICE is not presently building a temporary holding/processing facility in or around Newport Municipal Airport,” he said. “In addition, ICE has no plan or intention to begin construction or open an ICE facility in the City of Newport or at Newport Municipal Airport between now and until May 1, 2026.”
Newport’s mayor said Monday that the city hasn’t heard of any other developing plans by the federal government since May 1, but the city is not about to drop its legal challenge. Newport and the state filed a lawsuit in federal court in December to try to block any attempt by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to build and operate a temporary detention center in Newport.
In February, the federal government moved to dismiss the suit filed by the city of Newport and state of Oregon, arguing there was no final agency action to challenge and so the plaintiffs lack standing. That motion is pending in court, awaiting a formal response by the city of Newport and state of Oregon.
Kaplan Kaplan said the city doesn’t have any “playbook” to follow to challenge the government’s potential plans. He said the litigation costs have grown as the city has tried to get “clarity from the federal government,” but he said they “never get straight answers.”
The city of Newport and Oregon had suspected that ICE planned to convert an air facility at Newport’s airport into an ICE holding and processing center that could house up to 200 people, including immigrants taken into custody in Portland and within a 350-mile radius of Newport.
The city of Newport alleged that a contractor sent a notice of intent to lease 4.3 acres of land at the airport for “federal operations,” beginning in December 2025 and was investigating obtaining another 10-plus acres of land from the city and the airport. The contractor also inquired about reserving up to 200 hotel rooms for up to a year in Newport.
Kaplan said Monday that the city of Newport has separately secured a lease on property adjacent to its municipal airport, concerned the government might have been interested in that land. The lease includes a provision that the adjacent parcel can never be leased to anyone for a federal immigration detention center, he said.
- Maxine Bernstein covers federal court, law enforcement and criminal justice issues for The Oregonian/OregonLive and can be reached at [email protected]
Thank you for helping us fight the detention center.
In doing a program for Oregon Coast Learning last winter, I found that I was the only person in the room of about 50 whose entire family (except for one grandmother) had come to Oregon via the Oregon Trail. My mother’s family came in 1843 and 1845, while my father’s family came during one of the last years of migration via the Oregon Trail (1865). Might be fun to have a gathering of folks whose families came to Oregon via the Oregon Trail!