Immigration-rights lawyers, frustrated in their attempts to get public records about the Trump administration’s plans to open an immigration detention center in Oregon, are now suing to force the federal government to disgorge the records.
The nonprofit Innovation Law Lab on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, alleging each agency failed to respond to or expedite its requests or waive fees.
They’re seeking a judge’s order to compel the agencies to turn over the requested records about any potential sites in Newport, North Bend, Warrenton or the Portland area.
“ICE has shielded its plans for the Oregon Detention Project from the public,” the complaint says. It notes that information has trickled out in press reports and from congressional offices.
In January, a federal immigration official in another case confirmed that the Trump administration had eyed a Newport air facility for a temporary overnight detention center. It had started an environmental analysis of the site before scrapping the project altogether after the potential relocation of a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter to make way for the detention center prompted a public outcry.
Ralph Ferguson, acting assistant director for operations support at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has not ruled out the possibility of reviving the Newport plan.
In his January statement filed in court to U.S. District Court Judge Ann Aiken in Eugene, Ferguson outlined the agency’s position: “ICE is not presently building a temporary holding/processing facility in or around Newport Municipal Airport. In addition, ICE has no plan or intention to begin construction or open an ICE facility in the City of Newport or at Newport Municipal Airport between now and until May 1, 2026.”
Newport officials have not received any new information that indicates future plans to site an immigration center in the city, said John Fuller, city spokesperson. The city, though, still has its own suit pending against the federal government, attempting to get ICE to commit to not opening a detention center in Newport, he said.
Each federal agency’s spokesperson did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment about the records-related lawsuit.
In March, Todd M. Lyons, then-acting director of ICE, wrote to Oregon’s U.S. Rep. Andrea Salinas that ICE was not “currently planning” to expand or open new short-term or long-term detention facilities in Oregon, but the agency is exploring “various options to increase bedspace capacity nationwide” and working with other federal partners, including the U.S. Marshals Service and the Bureau of Prisons.
“ICE will continue to prioritize its resources and work closely with its network of federal, state, local and private sector partners to ensure the agency can acquire sufficient bedspace to fully achieve its mission,” Lyons wrote.
Among the records sought by the lawyers are: emails or other communications regarding any plans to use U.S. Coast Guard facilities or property in Oregon for federal immigration detention, including at or near Air Station Astoria in Warrenton, Air Station North Bend in North Bend, the Newport Municipal Airport or the U.S. Coast Guard Station in Portland.
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