The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has agreed to notify city and state officials at least 30 days in advance before starting environmental permitting for any Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Newport, Oregon, under a settlement filed Friday in federal court in Eugene.
The agreement, reached with the Oregon Department of Justice, runs through Aug. 1, 2027, and resolves a lawsuit that challenged federal planning activities at the municipal airport site on Oregon’s central coast. The settlement also means that no new ICE detention centers are scheduled to be built in Newport in the immediate future, the state said.
“ICE doesn’t get to skirt the law to build a facility for locking up and deporting our neighbors,” said Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield.
State lawyers had argued that federal officials were advancing plans for a long-term holding facility without providing required notice to state and local leaders and without complying with environmental and coastal land-use rules. The dispute intensified last year after residents and elected officials publicly raised concerns that federal authorities were scouting sites along the Oregon Coast, including property at the municipal airport in Newport.
What the settlement requires
- 30 days’ advance notice: The Department of Homeland Security will inform city officials at least 30 days before starting environmental permitting related to a detention facility at the Newport municipal airport site, through Aug. 1, 2027.
- No imminent construction: The federal government has not scheduled construction of an ICE detention center in Newport, according to the settlement language filed in U.S. District Court in Eugene.
- Case dropped: The Oregon Justice Department agreed to drop its lawsuit after the federal government’s commitments, according to state officials.
Concerns in Newport also included the temporary removal of a Coast Guard rescue helicopter from the city’s facility, an action that prompted separate litigation and a court order requiring the helicopter’s return. Oregon’s attorney general had previously secured that order and argued at the time that the combination of actions suggested the federal government was proceeding without adequate local consultation.
Local officials and residents had voiced opposition to a detention center at the municipal airport, citing community safety, coastal land-use protections and the role of the site in local maritime and emergency operations. The state’s legal case asserted that federal actions could have bypassed applicable environmental review and coastal-use processes.
In settling the case, the federal government committed to follow the notice provision and other terms laid out in the filing, and the Oregon Justice Department agreed to dismiss the litigation, according to the state announcement.
Officials did not announce plans for any alternative sites or for further federal action beyond the commitments in the settlement. The 30-day notice requirement is limited to the period specified in the agreement through Aug. 1, 2027.
