At a packed community meeting in Newport, along Oregon’s central coast, residents gathered to express a mix of frustration and anxiety about the relocation of a U.S. Coast Guard rescue helicopter – and the federal immigration enforcement outpost that could take its place.
The revelation about the defense contractor withdrawing from the potential project did little to stop questions from a fired-up community. Many still took the opportunity to share their disdain for federal immigration arrests and the harm a possible U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility would bring to the oceanside community, which boasts Oregon’s largest commercial fishing fleet and robust tourism.
“We are going to do everything we can to fight this,” Newport Mayor Jan Kaplan said Wednesday night. “That’s where we stand.”
In a Nov. 4 letter to the city of Newport, Team Housing Solutions — a contractor that specializes in housing for troops and private-sector workers — signaled its interest in leasing space at the Newport Municipal Airport. They told city leaders they wanted to use the 4.3-acre plot to “support federal operations commencing at the Newport Municipal Airport on or around December 1, 2025,” the letter said.
Newport resident Kathy Redwine said immigrants are an essential part of the economy and community.
“I am here tonight to voice my very strong opposition to the establishment of an ICE facility at our Newport airport,” Redwine said. “Let us protect all who call Newport home, not just those who are white.”
While residents at Wednesday’s meeting raised concerns about the potential immigration detention center, many also raised the alarm that the loss of the Coast Guard’s rescue helicopter would have a disastrous impact.
“We need that helicopter here. If we don’t have that helicopter here, lives will be lost,” said resident Mark Lowell. “We have to get that helicopter back.”
Newport has hosted a Coast Guard rescue helicopter since 1987, following the tragic sinking of a fishing vessel that left three dead. In 2013, the Coast Guard said it would shutter the facility and operate instead out of Astoria and North Bend. Newport Fishermen’s Wives, a nonprofit, stepped in and sued. Ultimately, Congress stepped in and passed legislation that kept the Newport facility open.
State Rep. David Gomberg, D-Otis, told constituents that with colder weather on the way and the crabbing season set to begin, the Coast Guard’s departure from Newport “couldn’t have come at a worse time,” leaving lives on the ocean at risk.
Newport officials confirmed in a statement that the helicopter has been relocated to North Bend, nearly 100 miles away from the city, but have been “unable to confirm if this move is intended to be temporary or permanent.”
The Coast Guard has not returned OPB’s request for comment.
Local, state and federal officials have all pressed unsuccessfully for answers from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The city of Newport sent out a statement on Monday raising the possibility that ICE might be planning a detention center.
New evidence has emerged since. A local septic company reported an inquiry from a federal contractor about removing up to 10,000 gallons of wastewater a day from the airport over the course of three years. And job postings began to appear online for ICE detention officers and medical personnel in Newport.
“Taken in total, what this suggests to us, of course, is that there is a plan somewhere to build a large-scale detention facility right here,” Gomberg said Wednesday night. “If that is indeed the case, then what that means is that someone somewhere believes that detaining lives is more important than saving lives here.”
In a statement to OPB on Wednesday afternoon, a spokesperson for ICE did not directly address any possible plans in Newport.
“Under President Trump and Secretary [Kristi] Noem’s leadership, [the Dept. of Homeland Security] is working at turbo speed on cost-effective and innovative ways to deliver on the American people’s mandate to arrest and deport the worst of the worst including gang members, pedophiles, terrorists, rapists, and murderers,” that statement said. “Secretary Noem is working with state and local governments to secure greater and more cost-effective detention space, like Alligator Alcatraz, Speedway Slammer, Louisiana Lockup and Cornhusker Clink.”
Meanwhile, members of Oregon’s congressional delegation have demanded answers from Noem, asking her to explain any federal activity at the Newport airport by Friday.
Oregon is one of a handful of states where ICE doesn’t currently have a detention center.
