This story was originally published on LincolnChronicle.org and is used with permission.
The city of Newport has so far racked up $184,000 in legal fees fighting plans for Oregon’s first immigration detention facility as the Department of Homeland Security looks to end the legal battle.
The federal agency asked a U.S. District Court judge in Eugene last week to dismiss claims against it. But Newport officials say the fight isn’t over until Immigration and Customs Enforcement can permanently promise that no detention center is coming to Newport.
The city, Lincoln County, the Newport Fisherman’s Wives and Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield and have been embroiled in a legal battle with the Department of Homeland Security after it moved a Coast Guard rescue helicopter to North Bend in October without the congressionally-required notice. That prompted the federal lawsuits and U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken in November issued a temporary restraining order that returned the helicopter to Newport.
But even before the lawsuit, there were several signs that raised alarms for the city that an ICE facility could be in the works. In November, a Texas-based company with a history of building military housing expressed interest in a piece of city-owned property at the municipal airport for an unnamed federal project.
Although the company withdrew its letter of interest and there was substantial opposition from the public and Newport city officials, job postings for immigration and customs enforcement personnel surfaced for positions in Newport and local motels received inquiries from government contractors looking for up to 200 rooms to house workers.
After months of trying to get confirmation from the Department of Homeland Security about its plans, a federal court filing in January finally confirmed the agency was looking to build a detention facility in Newport.
While the January filing claimed ICE is not currently seeking to build a detention center at or around the airport, it did not confirm that efforts were completely abandoned. The agency had started environmental compliance procedures to use the Coast Guard air facility as a “temporary holding/processing facility,” the filing said, but stopped Dec. 4 when the base was considered no longer available, according to Ralph Ferguson, an official with ICE’s enforcement and removal operations. Ferguson said that DHS was not currently building a temporary holding or processing facility in Newport.
Now, DHS said in its federal court filing Friday, the city’s claims against the Department should be dismissed.
“ICE has made no decision to build any such facility, has no present intent to make such a decision, and is not currently building any such facility in or around Newport or anywhere in Lincoln County, Oregon,” according to the filing.
Still, Newport officials are wary of the federal agency’s claims.
In a statement Wednesday, Mayor Jan Kaplan said the federal government “has left the community in a state of uncertainty and the city will only be satisfied when ICE decides to make a permanent commitment to not establish a detention facility in Newport.”
“While this statement represents a positive step for our community, we must remain vigilant and carefully consider its language,” Kaplan said. “Previously, ICE offered only that it would not build a detention facility in Newport or at the Newport Municipal Airport before May 2026. We have not yet received assurances that ICE will not attempt to establish a facility in our community in the future.”
“I am deeply proud of our community for vigorously defending our values … but our work does not stop here,” he said. “Given the continued lack of transparency and communication from DHS and ICE with the city, we will continue our litigation until we secure sufficient guarantees that they will take no action, now or in the future, that threatens the well-being of our community.”
The Newport city council held an executive (closed) session Monday during its work session to discuss litigation. During the regular council meeting, councilors unanimously approved moving $350,000 from the general fund to city administration. A portion of the money would be used towards an on-call city attorney, but most of the funds were earmarked for legal fees associated with the federal lawsuit, said city attorney Tiffany Johnson.
The city has already spent $184,748 on legal work by the Portland firm of Stoll Berne, according to a Jan. 13 invoice obtained in a public records request. The city has retained a team of eight lawyers with the firm who have collectively worked more than 400 hours on the case. The highest paid lawyer on the team charges $800 an hour and has worked 99 hours on the case, according to the records.
Shayla Escudero covers Lincoln County government, education, Newport, housing and social services for Lincoln Chronicle and can be reached at Shayla@LincolnChronicle.org
