This story was originally published on LincolnChronicle.org and is used with permission.
A federal judge in Eugene on Monday approved a request for a preliminary injunction and ordered the U.S. Coast Guard and Department of Homeland Security to restore and maintain the deployment of a rescue helicopter in Newport.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken was not unexpected as she had ordered the helicopter returned from North Bend on Nov. 24 and then extended that order two weeks later.
The injunction lasts until the Aiken rules on lawsuits brought by Newport Fishermen’s Wives, Lincoln County and later, the state of Oregon.
In her 41-page ruling, Aiken did not address an additional request Friday by the Oregon Attorney General’s office to stop the potential construction of an immigration detention center at the Newport airport.
The federal agencies have 60 days to respond to the judge’s ruling.
The Newport Fishermen’s Wives, Lincoln County and the Oregon attorney general’s office successfully received a temporary order Nov. 24 to have the helicopter returned to Newport from North Bend after it had been moved without congressionally-required notice. Their injunction request says the helicopter is needed for rescue operations in the Newport area, especially for the start of the Dungeness crab season.
U.S. Department of Justice attorneys argued in court filings and during a Dec. 8 hearing that the groups shouldn’t be allowed to interfere in routine and temporary operations as to when, where and how the Coast Guard deploys its rescue helicopters.
Although the helicopter returned to Newport after the Nov. 24 order, federal attorneys said in court it would remain there only through next spring when the agency “will assess its resources for the summer season as it has for the past several years” and may request permission to consolidate resources in North Bend.
Aiken’s ruling Monday found that:
- The helicopter’s move to North Bend was clearly a final agency action that ran afoul of notice requirements passed by Congress in 2014;
- That aviation ground equipment at the Newport facility was removed between October and November because a Coast Guard captain testified the agency had “no current rotational presence there;”
- Homeland Security is able to close the Newport facility but the agency did not follow closure procedures, including making certain findings, allowing public comment, holding public meetings and giving Congress 18 months’ notice. Aiken rejected the federal government’s argument that moving the helicopter to North Bend and occasionally landing in Newport did not constitute a closure;
- Homeland Security can make “reasonable management efficiencies” of the helicopter and air station “so long as they do not amount to closing, ceasing operations, or significantly reducing the personnel use of a Coast Guard air facility …” and
- While the Coast Guard said the helicopter’s move was only temporary, government lawyers fought the Nov. 24 restraining order and only returned the aircraft when the judge ordered it back.
Aiken agreed with the plaintiff’s argument that the helicopter is needed in Newport during the busy and dangerous Dungeness crab season.
“Are facility Newport was constructed in response to a maritime tragedy and plaintiffs have presented evidence that, without its continued operation, the Newport fishermen, the state of Oregon employees and the community at large will face serios danger due to lack of rescue helicopter coverage,” Aiken said.
While the judge said that the Coast Guard’s needed to balance helicopter and crew availability and that she appreciated the difficulty to do so, “… it is Congress, not this Court, that imposed strict procedural requirements on actions that close, cease operations, or significantly reduce the personnel or use of a Coast Guard air facility.”
State weights in against ICE
On Friday, attorneys for the state of Oregon amended their filings to also ask the court to stop the potential construction of an immigration detention center at the city’s airport.
The state’s amended 27-page filing Friday asks Aiken to block any attempts by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to build Oregon’s only detention center in Newport until it goes through a series of federal, state and local environmental and siting processes to determine any impact.
It is unclear if the judge can or will separate the two issues, especially since little is known locally about the possible detention center. But the state’s attorneys tried to use that in their arguments Friday.
“Defendants’ decision-making and planning for the ICE detention facility is occurring behind closed doors, with no transparency or public process,” the filing said. “Even defendants’ solicitation for contractors — which government agencies typically post publicly — have been issued directly to pre-vetted vendors with no public visibility. As a result, the state has been forced to piece together defendants’ plan for the ICE detention facility …”
The state argued that ICE has not satisfied necessary criteria including publishing an environmental impact statement laying out the possible fallout of a mass detention facility on the coast, and seeking an analysis from the state of Oregon about how such a facility jibes with land use laws.
The filing asked Aiken to block the construction of a detention center until those requirements are fulfilled.
The updated complaint contains few details that aren’t already known.
Since early November, there have been numerous reports suggesting ICE was planning a detention center in Newport, and hoped to use the 3.2-acre Coast Guard air facility and possibly adjacent property to house and then fly detainees out of state.
Federal contractors have inquired about leasing at the airport, trucking thousands of gallons of sewage away from the airport, and renting blocks of rooms on the central coast. Two federal contractors have posted jobs for detention officers and medical personnel based in Newport that appear keyed to an ICE facility. Many of those posts have since been removed.
In a sworn deposition in the current lawsuit, a senior U.S. Coast Guard official told attorneys this month that there had been preliminary discussions about housing an ICE facility at a Coast Guard air base located at the Newport airport, but that those plans had not moved forward.
Neither ICE nor its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, has offered any clarity on what might be in the works. Local, state and federal officials all say they’ve been met with silence when they ask for details.
“This is our opportunity to finally force an honest conversation,” Rep. David Gomberg, D-Otis, said in a statement to the Lincoln Chronicle and OPB. “We have collected evidence and watched the situation evolve. Now we have an opportunity to do something.”
- Oregon Public Broadcasting contributed to this report
