Secretive plans for an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center on the coast of Oregon have the facility’s prospective builders worried it will not meet the agency’s own bare minimum care requirements for detainees.
Previously unreported federal contracting documents obtained by NOTUS reveal how contractors are particularly skeptical that the planned 200-person detention center in Newport, Oregon — a town of 10,000 people just over two hours southwest of Portland — is adequately sized.
ICE acknowledged during an Oct. 31 tour of the site, which currently operates as a U.S. Coast Guard facility, that it is a “small area,” according to a transcript NOTUS obtained.
Concerns about the size of the site, a U.S. Coast Guard facility, arose during the site visit with contractors.
“Let’s be honest, there’s not enough square footage for us to meet that in full,” one unnamed contractor said, according to a transcript of the site visit the government distributed to contractors.
When asked about the feasibility of meeting minimum National Detention Standards — federal guidelines that in part govern how much living space detainees must have while in custody — government officials indicated to the contractors that they would consider waiving certain requirements to keep the project on track.
Another contractor familiar with ICE’s plans in Oregon, who was granted anonymity to avoid professional retribution, told NOTUS that “there’s no way they can meet their own standards of care given the space they’ve made available.”
“How many of their own standards are they going to waive away?” the contractor said.
The Oregon detention center would be part of a network of facilities the Trump administration has moved to open as it looks to greatly expand detention space, bringing hundreds of millions of dollars to private prison companies.
More than 65,000 people are currently in ICE custody, a record-breaking figure, and most of those arrested do not have a criminal history or charges.
Immigrants arrested in Portland, and in a 350-mile radius from Newport, could wind up at the facility, according to answers ICE provided in a document to potential contractors. Portland is one of several cities where President Donald Trump has deployed hundreds of National Guard personnel to crack down on illegal immigration and crime.
The government has indicated most ICE detainees in the planned Oregon facility will be held for less than 72 hours to avoid triggering heightened standards of care — which require more space and services — under the federal rules. But in documents distributed after the site visit, ICE also acknowledged “stays may extend up to 10 days,” leaving contractors wondering how they will make it work.
As conceived, detainees at the Oregon facility would reside in temporary structures at the location. Soft-sided tents would be acceptable temporary structures, ICE said in a document provided to contractors.
The facility, located at the end of an aircraft landing strip, would be located in a relatively secluded area off a two-lane road. ICE plans to bring planes directly up to a hangar on-site to load people on and ship them out.
“ICE Air flights will be picking up detains [sic] from this location,” the government indicated in a document obtained by NOTUS.
For Democratic Rep. Val Hoyle, who represents Newport, the idea of holding immigrants in temporary structures is not feasible in the coastal area.
“Hard-sided and soft-sided tents with those conditions off the coast, with incredibly strong winds in a tsunami zone, with the kind of cold and weather that we have is insane,” she told NOTUS. “But with this administration, it appears the cruelty is the point.”
Hoyle said she had not received information about the plans despite multiple inquiries to the Coast Guard and Department of Homeland Security.
“We have really great concerns, the biggest of which is nobody’s talking to us. I mean, I am the congressional representative from this district,” Hoyle said.
Kyle Virgien, a senior attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union National Prison Project, also expressed concern when asked about plans for the Oregon detention center.
“This year we’ve seen a number of very troubling abuses at a number of detention centers, and it’s really emerging as a pattern of disregard for the basic human needs of the people ICE is detaining, which is very worrying,” said Virgien, who highlighted recent court orders requiring ICE to improve detention conditions in Illinois, New York and California.
ICE acknowledged an initial request for comment from NOTUS, but did not respond to follow- up emails, phone calls and a detailed list of questions.
Minimum standards for various aspects of an ICE detention facility are detailed in a 200-plus page National Detention Standards document. The document includes guidelines for:
- Holding rooms — 37 square feet for one person per hold room, plus an additional seven feet for each additional person,
- Toilets — one per eight women or 12 men,
- Food — three meals a day, two of which must be hot,
- Law libraries — one that provides “the same … access as the general population” and
- Visitation areas for attorneys and families
All those things take up space. So do hallways, access points and work areas for contract staff.
In addition to housing detainees, contractors are being asked to provide all utilities, which will take up more space.
The government indicated it would be willing to waive requirements such as an outdoor recreation area, which would require 3,000 square feet to accommodate 200 people under National Detention Standards rules.
“This is a new realm we are in,” an unnamed government official said during the site tour, according to the transcript.
An unidentified government representative said during the site tour that the detention center did not need a recreation yard because it was a short-term detention facility. But once a detainee passes the 72-hour threshold, requirements change, according to National Detention Standards.
ICE did not specify in the transcript what standards it is willing to waive beyond the outdoor recreation area.
“What happens at the 72-hour and one-minute mark?” a second contractor familiar with the plans told NOTUS.
While the second contractor thought the site could meet minimum National Detention Standards guidelines, they ultimately described it as “trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.”
A third contractor familiar with the project told NOTUS they thought the site was big enough to satisfy federal standards.
But all three of the contractors told NOTUS they weren’t sure why ICE would want to build a facility so close to a community that’s so opposed to the project.
“We do feel that we have a moral compunction to ensure that people are taken care of and afforded the best care possible regardless of — or maybe even more because of — their vulnerable status,” the third contractor told NOTUS. “Nevertheless, we are also highly sensitive towards the communities in which we serve, and so there are a lot of things we have to consider before making a bid decision.”
When asked during the site visit about the “possibility of local protests or road blockages,” the government told contractors, “I would not count on the local authorities for support,” according to the transcript.
There are currently no long-term immigration detention centers in Oregon, and an ICE facility in Portland is effectively being blocked by bureaucracy amid opposition from residents. Already, the prospect of a new ICE facility is drawing vigorous opposition from the city, state and members of Congress.
Hoyle and Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat, told NOTUS they have observed overwhelming resistance from Newport residents during town halls.
“I’m not sure what part of ‘no’ the Trump administration doesn’t understand in the response from this small Oregon town to the colossally unhinged idea of an Airport Alcatraz in this coastal community,” Wyden wrote in a statement to NOTUS. “These new details from NOTUS about the prospect of waiving detention standards only add to my determination to represent Newport’s views that a detention center is neither needed or wanted.”
The backlash isn’t only about opposition to immigration enforcement efforts.
Local residents are also concerned about the proposed ICE facility supplanting Coast Guard operations that protect the area’s commercial fishermen.
An organization of fishermen’s wives and officials in Lincoln County, Ore., teamed up to sue the Department of Homeland Security to stop the government from potentially closing the Coast Guard facility, claiming it’s a matter of life and death. Between 2000 and 2019, 44 fishermen died off the coast of Oregon, according to the 14-page complaint.
U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken sided with the organization and the county, requiring the Coast Guard to temporarily maintain full rescue capabilities.
“Plaintiffs have presented compelling evidence of a grave risk to the lives of the Newport fishermen in the coming Dungeness crab fishing season, as well as risks to the other members of the community,” Aiken wrote in her temporary restraining order on Nov. 24.
Newport and Lincoln County officials declined to comment.
It’s not clear whether the lawsuit will stop or delay plans to construct the detention facility, but contractors told NOTUS they did not expect it to derail the project.
During the Oct. 31 site visit, a government official told contractors that ICE would have jurisdictional control over the property, according to a transcript of the meeting.
Detaining and deporting immigrants who entered the country illegally is a cornerstone of Trump’s second term, with the administration setting a goal of deporting 1 million people per year — an average of 2,740 people per day.
More than half a million people had been deported since Trump took office, according to a press release issued by the Department of Homeland Security on Oct. 27 — a number that has certainly increased since then based on various news accounts of deportations but for which the agency hasn’t published underlying data this year.
When the government needs to buy something or hire someone, it usually publicly posts a call for proposals.
While Congress approved more than $170 billion in new funding for immigration enforcement and border security as part of the sweeping tax bill Trump signed into law in July, the Newport facility is being funded through money controlled by the Navy.
As a result, the government does not have to publicly post requests for contracting proposals at the Oregon site because it is using a contracting vehicle known as Worldwide Expeditionary Multiple Award Contract 2.1, which sends solicitations directly to pre-vetted vendors.
Thursday is the deadline for contractors to submit their proposals and pricing to ICE.
Contractors bidding on the Oregon ICE facility expect that the deadline could be pushed back. They told NOTUS this week that they are still waiting on answers to questions about which specific design standards the government is willing to waive in order to construct the facility quickly.
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