Portlanders reject Detention Facility Impact Fee Ordinance as capitulation to ICE

By Holly Brown

Portland, OR – Tensions were high Wednesday night, November 19, as activists rallied against Councilor Angelita Morillo and Mitch Greens’ proposed Detention Facility Impact Fee, calling it a capitulation and effort to avoid revoking the ICE permit.

The proposed ordinance would charge private landlords of detention facilities for any costs the city incurs as a result of the facility being in Portland. This would include recouping money the city spends on police for crowd control to harass protesters at the ICE facility.

Protesters rallied outside city hall at 5 p.m. with calls to reject the ordinance and called for city council to instead focus on shutting down the ICE facility entirely and then entered the chambers for over an hour of public testimony, overwhelmingly against the ordinance and in favor of revoking the permit.

“Councilor Morillo stated this ordinance is the city’s response to the harms being committed by ICE at the Portland ICE facility, and any future ICE facilities in Portland,” said activist Kacey Desantis, referring to Instagram posts by the councilor, “with this proposal she makes it clear the councilors do not plan to fight the construction of more ICE detention centers, just charge fees so the city does not feel the costs of those facilities – the city would effectively be getting paid off to allow more ICE facilities in Portland. We don’t want more ICE facilities, and we want the one we have shut down.”

Councilor Green and Morillo seemed to agree. A presentation by Morillo’s staffer during the discussion in the meeting stated this was not a “moralizing” ordinance but was meant to “optimize market outcomes.”

Testimony centered around a few key points.

Testifiers called out the fact that Morillo made statements that the fee would not even apply to the ICE facility unless a new contract was signed with the landlord, meaning it would not even address the issue it is claiming to solve for the foreseeable future.

Others spoke to concerns surrounding the lack of detail as to where the money would go. The councilors stated money raised through the fee will go to residents dealing with teargas from the ICE Facility, but nowhere in the ordinance does it outline that this is required or how it will occur.

In addition, that some of the money will go to overtime pay for Portland Police Bureau for carrying out “crowd control” at the ICE facility, meaning the city will be getting paid by ICE to manage protests at the ICE facility.

Many expressed anger at the council spending time on what they view as an ordinance wholly incapable of meeting the level of terror ICE is committing on the streets of Portland, and for placing a price on human suffering.

“Don’t you dare think for a second that this non-solution will convince us to let up the pressure,” said testifier Isabella Shepard, “We will accept nothing less than the revocation of the permit.”

Almost all of those testifying called for the city to move quickly to revoke the ICE permit and shut down the Portland ICE facility.

Throughout the meeting tensions boiled over with attendees yelling out their frustration at the lack of substantive action by city council, and getting ejected from the meeting.

The process for revoking the permit continues to move at a snail’s pace in Portland. Stuart Lindquist, the landlord for the ICE facility, filed an appeal of the land use violation issued to him in December for the facility holding detainees past the 12-hour limit. He appealed this violation, and had a deadline of October 31 to submit any documentation, but the city granted him an extension to December 1, due to his claim that the government shutdown hindered his ability to get data, despite the fact that ICE operations reached a high in Portland during this shutdown, with 560 people arrested by ICE in Portland during the last month alone.

Activists vowed not to let up the pressure and continue to force the city to take action to revoke the permit immediately.

#PortlandOR #OR #ImmigrantRights #PDXCD

Source: https://fightbacknews.org/portlanders-reject-detention-facility-impact-fee-ordinance-as-capitulation-to?pk_campaign=rss-feed