'People will boycott': How a coastal city's fight against ICE is making waves across Oregon

[Amaryllis]

https://www.klcc.org/politics-government/2025-12-02/people-will-boycott-how-a-coastal-citys-fight-against-ice-is-making-waves-across-oregon

This story originally appeared in the Oregon Capital Chronicle and is used with permission.

The chilly breeze and sandy shores in this Oregon fishing city have shielded this town from scorching heat for decades. But despite the mist in the air, rumors here spread like wildfire.

The latest of those hunches came straight from city officials and has since commanded national attention. Newport City Manager Nina Vetter and Mayor Jan Kaplan signed onto a Nov. 10 statement suggesting the Trump administration could be planning Oregon’s first Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility. The site they suspected? The municipal airport of the city, home to more than 10,000 people.

All they had were a few clues. A life-saving rescue helicopter had just been relocated from the Coast Guard’s Newport Municipal Air facility to a station in North Bend nearly 70 miles away. A defense contractor wanted to lease land in December next to that facility in support of “federal operations.” Job listings showed private companies were recruiting detention officers with ICE experience in Newport.

Fast-forward more than three weeks, and hundreds of Oregonians from Newport and nearby have turned out to two public meetings to voice unanimous opposition to the facility. The state of Oregon has filed a federal lawsuit seeking the return of the helicopter, and a local group supporting fishermen has done the same, winning a 14-day order just before Thanksgiving to return it to Newport. In the meantime, U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, Gov. Tina Kotek, and U.S. Rep. Val Hoyle have all sought answers from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to no avail.
“Until we can get confirmation, we can’t talk about zoning and permits and and we can’t talk about how it might affect our economy and whether we want these things here,” said state Rep. David Gomberg, D-Otis. “Should a community be able to have some say on whether a major facility like this moves into the neighborhood? I think the answer is yes, but the federal government is not owning up.”

More at link