NEWPORT — Anti-ICE Newport has fired an SOS to cities around the state to help pay the mounting costs of its lawsuit to block an ICE detention center at the municipal airport.

The Newport city council voted to sue the Dept. of Homeland Security in Nov., 2025 after news leaked that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement planned to convert the U.S. Coast Guard aviation hangers into a holding facility.

Money for the lawsuit was found in the city’s emergency Contingency Fund. Legal fees so far are $400,000 and likely to rise to $500,000, according to Mayor Jan Kaplan, who declared the DHS plan an “existential threat” to Lincoln County.

“It would have killed our tourism,” said Mayor Kaplan, who pitched the issue to neighboring mayors, personally. “It definitely would have harmed our workforce because people would have left. We didn’t have the infrastructure to support that amount of sewage and water. I mean it would have harmed our lives, so we made the decision early to hire a law firm and sue.”

Calling on neighboring jurisdictions to contribute anywhere from $5,000 to $20,000, Kaplan argued Newport was doing the heavy lifting for everyone else.

“We’re really representing the whole coast,” he argued. “So far we have prevailed though it’s costing us a lot of money, but we didn’t have a choice, really. A detention center in Newport would have affected tourism in Depoe Bay, Yachats, Lincoln City — even Philomath. We ‘anted-up’ and now we’re asking other cities to help defray the cost. So far they’ve been very generous.”

Several towns have answered the call with about $50,000 in cash and pledges so far, including Ashland, Yachats and even cash-strapped Depoe Bay, which is facing its own costly lawsuit yet found  $3,000 for the Newport cause in its latest budget. Benton County also sent a check, with another unnamed “major Oregon city” about to announce a figure, say Newport officials.

Lawsuits by the city and Fishermen’s Wives made early gains, with flight status restored to the abandoned USCG aviation facility and a decision by DHS in Feb., 2026 to halt plans for the detention center. An April 10 letter by City Recorder Nina Vetter described the city’s legal strategy as preventing “a detention center until and unless all legal requirements are met.”

The city’s complaint continues to move forward with high-powered attorneys from Stoll Berne of Portland attempting to pound the final nail in the governments coffin-lid.

“The case is still not final and there’s litigation I can’t talk about,” said Mayor Kaplan, whose reelection in November could be sealed with a victory over ICE. “This stuff is not cheap, but they’ve done a fantastic job.”