FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 8, 2026
CONTACT: media@innovationlawlab.org
PORTLAND, Ore.—Innovation Law Lab filed a lawsuit today to force Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal agencies to reveal their secretive plans for overnight detention in Oregon.
Beginning in the fall of 2025, news reports revealed ICE had begun scouting sites for immigration detention in Oregon, including along the coast, home to several U.S. Coast Guard facilities.
In January, Innovation Law Lab sent FOIA requests to ICE, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), and the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) to uncover information about the government's plans. After over five months with no response from any agency, the group filed suit.
“The government ignored our records requests, so we are going to court to make them answer,” said Isa Peña, director of strategy at Innovation Law Lab. “We deserve to know what's being planned in our own backyards.”
“ICE has been planning for overnight immigration detention in Oregon behind closed doors. But the public has a right to transparency,” said Rachel Landry, staff attorney at Innovation Law Lab. “When a federal agency moves in secret, it sidesteps the very people who have to live with the consequences.”
Oregonians have made it clear where they stand. When reports surfaced that ICE was eyeing the Newport Municipal Airport, more than 800 residents packed an emergency Newport City Council meeting, every city councilor spoke out against detention, and Oregon's congressional delegation demanded answers from ICE.
Oregon remains one of the few states without an overnight immigration detention facility, and has a long record of fighting back against local immigration detention. In 2018, after the Trump administration detained more than 120 asylum seekers at the federal prison in Sheridan, community members organized until the last of them was released. Two years later, the NORCOR jail in The Dalles ended its ICE detention contract following sustained community and legal pressure.
A copy of the complaint is online at https://innovationlawlab.org/sites/default/files/2026-07/01._FOIA%20Complaint.pdf.
