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A fishing town of 10,000 sued ICE. The agency backed off its Newport detention site.

Newport spent $368,000 over 10 months; the deal requires 30 days' notice through Aug. 1, 2027, but bans nothing.

A fishing town of 10,000 sued ICE. The agency backed off its Newport detention site.
Stock photo. Photo by Ethan Grey on Unsplash

The Trump administration ended two federal lawsuits over a planned immigration detention site in Newport, Oregon, on Friday, Oct. 23, by stating in a court filing that ICE "is not currently planning to expand any current detention facilities" or "open any new long or short-term detention facilities in the State of Oregon." The Department of Homeland Security must also give Oregon, Newport and two conservation groups 30 days' warning before finishing environmental review for any Newport facility, through Aug. 1, 2027.

The terms are in a joint stipulation of dismissal filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon in Eugene, in the consolidated cases State of Oregon v. Mullin (No. 6:26-cv-00186) and City of Newport v. Noem (No. 6:25-cv-02396), before U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken. The dismissal is without prejudice, so the plaintiffs can sue again.

A fishing town takes on ICE

Newport is a coastal city of about 10,000 that runs on fishing, tourism and marine research. Local leaders learned in October 2025 that ICE was considering the U.S. Coast Guard Air Facility at Newport Municipal Airport, KOIN reported. DHS later disclosed in court that it began work by fall 2025, moved the rescue helicopter based there since 1987, and expected to hold detainees as early as January 2026, OPB reported.

Newport sued on Dec. 22, 2025, arguing the government was turning an aviation site into a detention center without public input, against a 1992 agreement limiting the property to aviation use. Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield's case followed in January, and in April Judge Aiken let Cascadia Wildlands and the Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition join it. The plaintiffs claimed violations of the National Environmental Policy Act and the Coastal Zone Management Act, and the state and conservation groups pointed to threatened and endangered species near the site, Courthouse News reported.

NEPA, in plain terms, makes federal agencies study and publicly disclose a big project's environmental harm before building it; the statute requires "a detailed statement" for "major Federal actions significantly affecting the quality of the human environment."

In a Feb. 26 declaration, Ralph Ferguson, an acting assistant director at ICE, told the court ICE had begun environmental work on the site and stopped after the Coast Guard pulled it on Dec. 4, 2025.

What the government agreed to

The stipulation says that if DHS "decides to construct, develop, or operate a temporary or permanent facility in the City of Newport for the holding, detention, processing, or deportation" of people in ICE custody, it must notify the plaintiffs at least 30 days before issuing a final environmental assessment, environmental impact statement or categorical exclusion under NEPA. The notice "in no way replaces, narrows, or waives" public-notice rules already in federal law.

The plaintiffs won a written commitment and an early warning without a trial, and the government avoided turning over its documents in discovery. But the deal bans nothing, and the notice duty covers only Newport, the Oregon Capital Chronicle noted. Newport spent more than $368,000 in attorney fees over 10 months, with help from Portland, Yachats, Ashland and Benton County, the Lincoln Chronicle reported.

"ICE doesn't get to skirt the law to build a facility for locking up and deporting our neighbors," Rayfield said in a news release. Newport Mayor Jan Kaplan called the deal "a significant victory for Newport, for Oregon and for our community," according to Courthouse News. Josh Laughlin, executive director of Cascadia Wildlands, said he hopes the case will "provide a template for other states to thwart further attempts to build these ruthless facilities."

DHS's claims, checked

A DHS spokesperson told Courthouse News the department is focused on "removing the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens" and is "moving swiftly to utilize EXISTING detention space with our state and county partners."

The record does not support the first claim. Of 65,765 people ICE held on July 11, 2026, 70.6% had no criminal conviction, TRAC data shows. DHS named no partner for the second, and Oregon law bars state and local agencies from taking part in immigration enforcement without a judicial warrant and prohibits private immigration detention centers, according to the Oregon Department of Justice.

Why it matters to working families

More detention beds let ICE hold more people for longer. Arrests have already overwhelmed a Fresno facility, and the Fifth Circuit has cut off bond hearings for many detained immigrants. Every bed that never opens is one fewer place to hold a worker away from family.

We applaud Newport, Oregon and the conservation groups for forcing ICE to follow environmental law in the open.

What's next: the notice promise runs through Aug. 1, 2027, and a separate court order keeping the Coast Guard rescue helicopter in Newport remains in place. If ICE shows up at your job in the meantime, here is what to do.

Sources

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