Portland Goes After ICE Building for Land-Use Violation

The Oregon city of Portland said Wednesday it will issue a land-use violation notice to the city's US Immigration and Customs Enforcement building, accusing the facility of detaining people beyond the limits of what its land-use approval allows. The building's conditional land-use approval, in place since 2011, doesn't allow people to be kept overnight or held for more than 12 hours, per the AP. The city alleges that this provision was violated 25 times over the 10-month period from last October through most of this July. ICE "made clear detention limitation commitments to our community, and we believe they broke those policies more than two dozen times," Portland Mayor Keith Wilson said in a release.

The city said it will issue the notice, which also references a second violation regarding boarded-up windows, on Thursday. ICE didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Recently, the building has been the site of nightly protests, which peaked in June, with smaller clashes also occurring since then. Immigration and legal advocates often gather there during the day to help those arriving at the building, while protesters, often dressed in black and wearing helmets or masks, show up at night. While disruptive to nearby residents, the protests are a far cry from the racial justice protests that gripped the city in 2020.

Portland said its permitting bureau launched an investigation into the ICE building in late July in response to formal complaints. It reviewed data released by ICE to the nonprofit Deportation Data Project under public records requests, which indicated that the most recent of the 25 detention violations between Oct. 1, 2024, and July 27 occurred on May 20, the city said.

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Landowners have 30 days after receiving a notice of violation to correct the issue. A fine can be issued if there's "substantial evidence of violation," the city said. The city's permitting bureau can also initiate a "reconsideration" of a land-use approval by scheduling a hearing at least 60 days after a notice is given, the city said. Decisions from the hearings officer can be appealed to the City Council.