This story was originally published on LincolnChronicle.org and is used with permission.
The city of Newport wants to settle its lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, but the federal government keeps dragging its feet.
Nearly a year ago, a federal contractor expressed interest in creating a detention center at the Newport airport and the Coast Guard’s rescue helicopter was removed without notice. With no response from the federal government to confirm its plans, two separate lawsuits were filed.
Newport Fisherman’s Wives, Lincoln County and Oregon attorney general Dan Rayfield filed suit against the U.S. Coast Guard. As a result, the helicopter was returned to the airport in December and federal officials told a judge in March that the agency was no longer eyeing Newport for a potential detention center.
The city of Newport filed its own lawsuit to ensure any plans for an Immigration and Customers Eforcement facility in Newport were moot – and that case is still ongoing in the U.S. District Court in Eugene. So far, the city has racked up more than $368,000 in legal fees with their Portland-based lawyers Stoll Berne.
After months of trying to get confirmation from Homeland Security about its plans, a federal court filing in January finally confirmed the agency had been looking to build a detention facility in Newport. The defendants, which include the U.S. Coast Guard, Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement have tried unsuccessfully to dismiss the case against them.
Since then, they’ve pushed back deadlines and asked for more time to approve a settlement – much to the annoyance of Newport’s lawyers and U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken.
Justice Department lawyer Sean C. Duffy told the judge that the settlement needed final approval from the assistant U.S. Attorney General’s office and had been delayed getting there due to an employee on bereavement leave, vacations and new hires. Duffy had requested the department sign off on the approval by Oct. 30.
“We have too much of coming to court with the ‘Dog ate my homework’,” said Stoll Berne attorney Keith Ketterling during a status hearing Friday morning.
“… I’ve never had an agreement with the U.S. attorney’s office that has taken this long to get done – bereavements, last time it was somebody on vacation,” Ketterling said. “This administration can tear down the east wing [of the White House] and bomb people in the Atlantic and do things any time they want, so I would encourage the court to consider a hard, hard deadline.”
Aiken, who said she had overseen many cases that moved slowly, said Friday that even she felt it was “shocking” and “disappointing” that it has taken months for a settlement to be approved.
She gave federal attorneys an Oct. 23 deadline to approve the settlement. If that deadline isn’t met, the judge said then the case will go through the litigation process which involves discovery, hearings, and a possible trial to be resolved.
- Shayla Escudero is an enterprise reporter for the Lincoln Chronicle covering local governments, education, housing and social services and can be reached at Shayla@LincolnChronicle.org
