Victory for immigrant rights movement: Portland issues land use violation notice to ICE Facility

Portland, OR – On Wednesday, September 17, the city of Portland issued notices of land use violations to the building owner of the ICE facility in the South Waterfront neighborhood of Portland.

This comes after months of protests and action by community groups like Portland Contra Las Deportaciones (PDXCD), which founded a coalition called Revoke the ICE Permit PDX, and others to demand the permit for the facility be revoked and that it is shut down. The facility has been at the center of protests for months, with a near constant presence of protesters standing against ICE. A petition to shut down the facility now has over 17,000 signatures.

The violation notice issued to the building owner is for holding detainees past a 12-hour detention limit stipulated by a conditional use permit granted in 2011. In just ten months alone, ICE has violated this condition over a dozen times, in one case, holding a detainee for 47 days.

The notice of violations starts a process in which the city can hold reconsideration hearings to revoke the permit 60 days after the violation notice is issued. It is up to the director of the Office of Permitting and Development to initiate the reconsideration hearings. Organizers demand this should be done, and that the city move as quickly as possible.

“While we are glad the city is taking the first steps to shut down this facility, we know it only happened as a result of the tireless organizing from regular people to make this happen,” said Omar Gil, an organizer with PDXCD, “So we plan to keep up the pressure and make sure that building is shut down; we believe the city should do this even sooner than the 60-day waiting period.”

Councilors like Angelita Morillo stated council members cannot comment on the violations, or they risk being removed from the hearing if it reaches city council, but organizers have a different perspective.

“Now is not the time for our city officials to hide, it is time for them to fight. No longer should they hide behind processes to justify silence, we need them to take a firm stance to revoke the permit now,” said Cass Cano, an organizer with PDXCD.

On the same day the city announced it would be issuing the notice of violation, Revoke the ICE Permit held a protest at city hal l, and disrupted the meeting several times.

Isabella Shepard was one of the activists to disrupt the meeting by stating, “City Council: We will not have business as usual while ICE continues to terrorize our community in violation of the law.”

After several disruptions the organizers were removed from the meeting by security and asked to sign ejection forms banning them from city council for 30 days, which they refused.

Revoke the ICE Permit and PDXCD put out a statement after the notice of violations was served, vowing to continue to fight until the permit is revoked.

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