A federal contractor representing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told Oregon officials last week that they are preparing an analysis of an unspecified project that would have significant environmental ramifications for the coastal city of Newport.
The Virginia-based environmental services company Solv, LLC on Thursday inquired with the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development about initiating a “proposed action” under a 1972 federal law, the Coastal Zone Management Act. The message offers the clearest indication yet that an immigration detention center could be coming to the fishing city in the coming months, a possibility that has been met with resistance for weeks from residents and Oregon’s local, state and federal lawmakers.
The exact type of proposed project was not specified in the email, according to conservation agency spokesperson Sadie Carney, who said in a statement that the department responded with answers to “procedural questions” the contractor had. She was not immediately able to comment on whether the contractor had since Thursday provided Oregon with a more concrete or official plan.
Since early November, several Oregon Democrats have speculated that the Coast Guard facility in Newport’s Municipal Airport could be converted to an ICE center, pointing to the unexplained relocation of a life-saving Coast Guard rescue helicopter from Newport to North Bend, a city located about 95 miles away.
Newport’s city leaders went public with their concerns on Nov. 10, and clues from job listings for detention officers to an inquiry from a federal defense contractor seeking to lease land by the Coast Guard facility have since fueled suspicion. John Fuller, a spokesperson for the city of Newport, said in statement that that contractor is now reaching out to hotels up and down the Oregon coast as recently as Tuesday morning in search of up to 200 rooms for a year.
Oregon is one of the few states without a long-term immigration detention facility, a reflection of its decades-long status as America’s first sanctuary state. State law prohibits state or local resources from being used to help enforce federal immigration law.
The environmental contractor’s email, reviewed by the Capital Chronicle, was written by a scientist with Solv, LLC and offers no specific details about the project or its location in Newport.
Solv, LLC, however, received more than $5.6 million in federal contracts from 2021 to June 2025, with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security tapping its expertise in “ICE sustainability program support services.” In December 2020, the company produced an evaluation report for the federal agency when it sought to expand its operations at an ICE processing facility in El Paso, Texas.
The email’s author did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday, but she wrote that ICE “is beginning the process of initiating” a consultation and is “developing a federal consistency determination for a proposed action in Newport Oregon.” She asked about how best to submit those findings and for more information about the timeline in which she should provide other documentation.
“Ahead of submitting our letter and adjoining documentation, we would like to clarify a few of the consult requirements of the Oregon Coastal Management Program,” wrote Amber Carter, a scientist for Solv LLC. Her Linkedin shows that she leads a team of six environmental scientists and energy engineers “on an environmental compliance, energy, and sustainability contract.”
Under federal law dating back to 1972, nearly all states bordering an ocean or Great Lake set federally approved plans to protect their coastlines. Whenever a federal agency wants to act in a coastal zone in Oregon, it must wait at least 90 days before the project can break ground.
During that time, Oregon’s Department of Land Conservation and Development conducts a 60-day review to determine how that activity would impact the coast, as well as a 30-day public comment period. Notable recent uses of the program have been offshore wind energy and the canceled Jordan Cove Energy Project, which would have added a liquified natural gas export facility near Coos Bay.
The process allows for Oregon to make recommendations or offer support under certain conditions for a project. But a federal agency can overrule an objection from state officials if it finds its efforts are “consistent to the maximum extent practicable” with state law. The federal agency must inform Oregon of that decision, opening the door for potential litigation that Oregon would need to file should it disagree with the outcome.
Rep. David Gomberg, D-Otis, told the Capital Chronicle that the latest inquiry from the ICE contractor “makes it clear that something’s going on.” The federal defense contractor seeking to lease land withdrew its inquiry on Nov. 12, but he has been reticent to take that as a sign the plans for an ICE facility are over. Other private companies have also been contacted for local land, he added.
“All we know is that they are making inquiries about a proposed action in Newport and making sure it’s consistent with Coastal Zone Management Act requirements,” he said. “I just take that as one more piece of evidence that this proposed action is far from over.”
The other state legislator for Newport, Sen. Dick Anderson, R-Lincoln City, previously wrote in a Nov. 14 email to a constituent shared with the Capital Chronicle that the “rumor of an ICE detention facility in Lincoln Co. has been debunked.” He also wrote to the homeland security department last week seeking the immediate return of the rescue helicopter to Newport’s Municipal Airport.
Anderson did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Tuesday. Bryan Iverson, his chief of staff, told the Capital Chronicle on Nov. 12 that Anderson’s office “won’t comment on speculation or rumors just to fear monger.”
In the meantime, local residents with ties to the fishing industry and boat workers scored a major legal victory for their helicopter, which was stationed in Newport back in 1987. U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken on Monday issued a 14-day temporary restraining order in response to a lawsuit from Lincoln County and a local nonprofit supporting fishermen, ordering the return of the helicopter to the Coast Guard’s facility in Newport’s municipal airport.
Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield filed a similar lawsuit in federal court on Monday, though the state is seeking to combine its lawsuit with a local nonprofit’s challenge. Aiken wrote in her ruling that federal law requires Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to “follow notice and comment procedures for the public and provide notification to Congress before closing or even significantly reducing the use of a Coast Guard air facility.”
Fuller said that a rescue helicopter has landed at Newport’s airport on Tuesday “at least for refueling.” He added that he was not able to confirm if it has “officially returned to our airport at this time.”
ICE, DHS and the U.S. Coast Guard did not immediately respond to the Capital Chronicle’s requests for comment on Tuesday. In a statement to The Oregonian/OregonLive.com, Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the homeland security department, said the Coast Guard is “always ready to respond to search and rescue needs on the Oregon Coast, just as it always has been. Any suggestion otherwise is an insult to the hard, heroic work the men and women of the Coast Guard put in every day.”
