"'People will boycott’: How a coastal city's fight against ICE is making waves across Oregon
Local governments in Oregon have struggled with the extent to which they should resist or comply with increasingly aggressive federal immigration policy, but one town took a different approach"
"Newport City Councilor CM Hall at an emergency city meeting Nov. 12 said she was 'willing to call out and name the people who take these jobs that are posted.' Hotels have informed Newport officials about a federal contractor attempting to book hundreds of rooms for up to a year starting in December on the Oregon Coast.
The Lincoln City chapter of the progressive group Indivisible told the Capital Chronicle it’s discussing a 'public accountability campaign' to provide residents information about which companies are supporting ICE’s efforts on the Oregon Coast.
It would not be the first time the helicopter’s removal spurred the town into action ahead of the dangerous Dungeness crab fishing season. In late 2014, the nonprofit Fishermen’s Wives took the Obama administration to federal court over the closure of Newport’s Coast Guard facility. Congress ended up passing a law that requires notice and explanation from the homeland security department should a reduction in Coast Guard facility activity take place.
But the Trump administration has not provided details on its plans in Newport. In a prior statement, the U.S. Coast Guard asserted that the Newport air facility is a staging site for specific events where there has never been a permanent assigned aircraft. ICE did not respond to the Capital Chronicle’s requests for comment.
Taunette Dixon, a member of the Newport Fishermen’s Wives who is set to begin fishing with her husband on a family boat in the coming weeks, described that claim as 'wordsmithing a bit.' She noted that there has always been a Newport helicopter in rotation from the Coast Guard’s North Bend station. The Newport Coast Guard facility was established in 1987 after the fishing vessel Lasseigne capsized about 20 miles off the coast two years prior, killing three crewmen.
'They have minutes before they have a lack of use of their limbs. Within an hour, even if they have a flotation device, they don’t have a high survival rate,' Dixon said. 'So we are looking at them recovering our loved ones, not rescuing our loved ones.'”
~ Shaanth Nanguneri
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