This story was originally published by The Oregonian/OregonLive and is used with permission.
The federal government turned its sights on another stretch of Oregon coast as a possible spot for an immigrant detention center – with the help of a leading local politician – but the idea appears to have stalled for now after a wave of public consternation.
Coos County Commission Chairman Drew Farmer said he got involved after catching word that a contractor working for the government may be looking at his county for the site.
He was hoping, he said, to provide options to divert interest away from the U.S. Coast Guard station at the airport in North Bend.
He tracked down the contractor, KVG, and made an offer.
KVG representatives confirmed in a meeting with Farmer last week that they want a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility to house 100 to 200 detainees run by 115 to 130 guards and other staff members, Farmer said.
It likely would be one of the tent-style camps that the Trump administration has touted to quickly boost capacity for its mass deportation campaign.
Farmer then posted a video Monday on social media to let his constituents know about the potential plan – and his recommendations for where a detention center might work best in the county to help shore up its economy.
“People were pretty up in arms about it,” said a county resident who asked not to be named because she feared retribution over a divisive issue. “I don’t think he expected the blowback. … It started a whole beehive.”
By Wednesday, Farmer had removed the video from his county Facebook page, saying it had touched off confusion and even what he described as “panic” from opponents.
By Friday, Farmer acknowledged: “I screwed up.”
“I stepped into a role that I probably didn’t belong in, but I felt I had to,” he said. “I’m grateful that the community really snapped back at me and got me grounded again on priorities around not just fixing numbers, which is where my head got stuck, but the impacts to the community and to people as a whole.”
His video also prompted U.S. Rep. Val Hoyle, the Democrat representing the district, to call Farmer after she became aware of concerns.
Hoyle told The Oregonian/OregonLive that she remains opposed to “any sort of ICE facility along the Oregon Coast.”
“I understand the Commissioner’s desire to strengthen the coastal economy in order to fund basic services,” Hoyle said in an email. “Rural Oregon has been left behind for far too long. But in my opinion, an ICE facility would harm our tourism industry, stress our housing supply, and potentially damage our environment.”
But that may not be the end of the discussion.
Options in Coos County
Farmer said he had heard a while ago that federal officials might be eyeing Coos County for a detention center, but that was reinforced more recently by lawyers in Newport.
Newport residents and political leaders had turned back a similar proposal last year for a detention center at the city’s airport and fought to keep the Coast Guard helicopter in town after it had been drawn away to do immigration enforcement.
The lawyers, he said, told him that Coos County, more than 100 miles down the coast, could be next.
Farmer said he wanted to prevent any removal of the Coast Guard helicopter from North Bend and hoped to keep any potential detention center away from tourism areas in the county.
He also was looking at ways to shore up the county’s finances with a federal infusion of dollars.
The county is anticipating a $2 million to $3 million budget deficit that could lead to a loss of sheriff’s deputies because law enforcement makes up the largest source of the general fund, he said.
Farmer also thought of cities in Coos County that might benefit from the money.
He emailed different city managers and mayors to figure out “where a redirection could occur,” he said.
Farmer suggested Lakeside, an incorporated community north of Coos Bay near the Oregon dunes “as the most probable candidate.”
A state prison closed there in 2021 and Lakeside also faces a substantial decrease in state sewer payments it was counting on as it rebuilds its wastewater treatment plan, he said. A 33-acre swath of federal land sits outside the city, he said.
Farmer wrote this week to Adam Prosser, a managing director with KVG, that “Lakeside is certainly interested” but that he also expected “the pushback would be immense.”
“Community concerns echo that of Newport’s around where staff would be housed and impacts on tourism,” he told Prosser, according to the email exchange he shared with The Oregonian/OregonLive.
Prosser declined to comment for this story.
Lakeside Mayor Nikki Wood would say only that there is no “immediate indication of the federal government building a detention center in Lakeside.”
“That is all the public comment I’m willing to say at this time,” she said.
Lakeside City Council President Tom Miller didn’t immediately respond to a request seeking comment and council member Alan Pointer hung up when asked about his position on a potential immigration detention center in his city.
‘Cautionary tale’
Any Coos County deal appears on the back burner for now.
In the email exchange with Farmer, KVG’s Prosser wrote that moving ahead in Lakeside “might be moot at this point.”
But the contractor left the door open for the future.
“We’ll let (it) simmer on our side and see if the government demand signal for Oregon comes back up,” he responded this week.
Farmer said he’s now against the idea because the community feedback has led him to believe that a detention center couldn’t “be accomplished in a way that would be beneficial to our community.”
Fellow Commissioner John Sweet said he’s also “definitely not interested in having” a detention center in the county. He noted that Oregon’s sanctuary law prohibits local governments from cooperating with federal authorities for immigration enforcement.
Sweet said he believes Farmer “was trying to do what we need to do to keep our county afloat … but this isn’t a good way to do it, in my mind. We want to get this behind us.”
The third member of the county commission, Rod Taylor, didn’t respond to requests seeking comment.
“I got focused on the situation on Lakeside and what could be done to preserve law enforcement throughout the county,” he said.
He also said he was raising awareness among state decision-makers about the county’s financial picture.
“The desperate situation our county is in and 60% of other counties are in … took me down a road that I shouldn’t have been going down,” he said.
