Portland Mayor: ICE Facility Is a Disaster Waiting To Happen- opinion piece in Newsweek-very important article [View all]

[Amaryllis]

https://www.newsweek.com/portland-mayor-ice-facility-disaster-opinion-10892062

Oct 18, 2025 at 05:01 AM EDT
By Keith Wilson
Mayor, Portland

An “accident chain” is a collection of small mistakes or oversights that, together, can lead to an accident, injury or death. As the former CEO of one of North America’s safest freight trucking companies, and now the mayor of Portland, Oregon, I’ve learned to see these potential chain-links everywhere.

Earlier this month, I was summoned to meet Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Trump adviser Corey Lewandowski at Portland’s controversial Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility. In business, I asked for, and received, a workplace so organized and clean that we could find every tool or piece of equipment in the dark—"a place for everything, and everything in its place." By contrast, the ICE facility was a mess of overflowing dumpsters, loose body armor and crowd control munitions and a broken HVAC air conditioning system that raised both temperatures and tempers in the aging building.

It is little wonder why Secretary Noem has ignored or denied all regional journalists who have requested access to this facility, opting instead to fly in the least credible, most ideologically compromised hangers-on that MAGA social media has to offer.

I felt similarly deep concern for the rank-and-file personnel I met. Most were far from home, overworked and exhausted while receiving no pay in the midst of a prolonged government shutdown. I can only imagine the family and financial stress they are under as they are forced to make daily, split-second decisions with immense human consequences.

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Instead, Secretary Noem’s visit was a blindly expensive, taxpayer-funded and ultimately unconvincing whistle-stop tour intended to prop up a ludicrous fable of domestic terrorism and conspiracy. The path this administration is on, however, is deadly serious, and the number of links in the accident chain grows daily. ICE has surged recruitment while dropping applicant and training standards. Signing bonuses are at an all-time high, threatening to attract individuals who place personal financial gain over principle. Deaths in ICE facilities are mounting, the latest a 67-year-old Jordanian national, and clashes with the public due primarily to poor decision-making and tactics continue to rise.

More at link. Very important article.