To the editor:
Newport is responding forcefully, fully and finally — ICE is not welcome here. Our community spoke with one voice at the special City Council meeting last Wednesday through the many who said we condemn our current federal administration for:
- Violating human rights;
- Refusing due process;
- Bringing chaos and cruelty to our streets;
- Trying to turn us against each other;
- Arresting people just because their skin is a different color;
- Tearing down part of the people’s White House;
- Using the presidency for personal gain; and
- Daily violations of law too numerous to list.
The news that ICE plans a detention facility at our airport is horrifying. The concept is unworkable. I served for 10 years on the city’s airport advisory committee. I learned that our airport is a fragile place, subject to climate change and environmental concerns. Sewer service is non-existent and would require complex infrastructure to create.
ICE envisions temporary arrangements, using trucks to transport 5,000 to 10,000 gallons of sewage each day. For what? Locking 500 to 1,000 of our fellow citizens behind 12 foot fences until they can be “disappeared” outside our country.
Who will be the custodians of these citizens? Where will they live and buy their groceries and receive medical care and educate their children? How many vehicles will have to come and go across the only bridge connecting Newport to the airport?
We know ICE facilities across the country have subjected citizens to inadequate food and water, non-existent medical care, overcrowding, abuse and torture. We can expect no less in our community.
Our sheriff has been concerned that ICE operates with a “different rulebook” from the one our Constitution requires. Our city and county officials have complained about the lack of communication and transparency from the federal government. The Coast Guard helicopter upon which our fishing fleet and our tourists depend for safety has been moved away without notice or a chance to be heard.
Our government is headed by an executive whose assessment of life in Oregon is “untethered to the facts,” as a federal judge has put it, so he cannot be trusted. We must continue to resist. We must demand that our Coast Guard helicopter be returned. We must refuse to allow our airport to be overtaken by cages to hold our fellow citizens.
— Susan Reese Painter/Newport
Agreed. No ICE is needed here.