Newport Gets Rescue Copter Back After Lawsuit, Still Fighting ICE Facility

Published 12/28/25 at 12:55 a.m.
By Oregon Coast Beach Connection Staff

(Newport, Oregon) – The small, coastal Oregon town of Newport seems to have won at least part of its fight for a safer fishing industry, tourism industry and its resistance to a possible ICE detention center. (USCG file photo)

A federal judge last week ordered the Trump administration to keep a U.S. Coast Guard rescue helicopter stationed in Newport, after federal officials acknowledged diverting Oregon crews to the southern U.S. border as part of its immigration enforcement missions.

U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken issued a preliminary injunction directing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and the Coast Guard to maintain an MH-65E Dolphin helicopter in Newport. The ruling reinforces a temporary restraining order Aiken issued in November, after the aircraft was moved without notice to the Coast Guard base in North Bend on the south coast.

That move came mysteriously and without explanation in October, just weeks before the dangerous crabbing season was set to begin. The loss of a rescue helicopter in the area also would have left some visitors in greater danger as well, potentially affecting the tourism industry and areas as much as 100 miles to the north of town. Communities like Lincoln City or Pacific City could have seen response times rise to more than an hour if an emergency were to occur in the surf. USCG rescuers out of Astoria, North Bend, Depoe Bay and Newport get busy during the tourist season.

Federal officials have since agreed to return the helicopter to Newport Municipal Airport indefinitely, Oregon’s U.S. senators announced on Dec. 4. This eases weeks of concern in town as well as the surrounding coastal region.

The dispute escalated last month when the Newport nonprofit Fishermen’s Wives and Lincoln County filed suit against ICE and the Department of Homeland Security. Their complaint argued that relocating the helicopter violated a 2015 congressional mandate requiring advance notice of significant Coast Guard operational changes or closures.

Amid these anxieties, Newport began to get hit with other federal issues. Again without clear word from the government, the City of Newport received inquiries from various federal contractors that signaled the administration was looking at an ICE detention center at Newport's airport.

Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield later joined the case. Last week, attorneys from his office filed amended motions asking Judge Aiken to also block any effort to establish an immigration detention center at Newport’s airport.

The filing alleged that, “Alongside their unlawful efforts to reassign the rescue helicopter, Defendants have been furtively working to transform the Newport Municipal Airport into an ICE detention facility,” and accused federal agencies of acting “behind closed doors, with no transparency or public process.”

According to the state, the lack of information has forced officials to reconstruct federal plans through public reporting, contractor inquiries, and second-hand accounts from a Coast Guard witness. Fishermen’s Wives and Lincoln County are not involved in the new motion.

Since then, at least one contractor has pulled its interest in the area.

The City of Newport said Newport Fishermen’s Wives have a long history of fighting to keep a rescue helicopter on the central Oregon coast. The group first secured the aircraft in 1987 following a series of deadly maritime incidents, and again mobilized in 2014 when the Coast Guard attempted to close the Newport air facility. Their efforts reignited this year, just weeks before the start of the region’s high-risk crabbing season.

“The City of Newport stands firmly in support of the Newport Fishermen’s Wives in their lawsuit and motion for a temporary restraining order against the U.S. Coast Guard to secure the return of the rescue helicopter to Newport,” Mayor Jan Kaplan said in a statement. “As home to Oregon’s largest commercial fishing port and the fifth city in the nation to receive a Coast Guard City USA designation, the presence of the rescue helicopter in Newport has long been a critical component of public safety for our fishing community and tourists.”

Kaplan and city officials also called the possibility of an ICE detention an issue of “deep concern, frustration, and fear” for the community.

With the chopper back, the town appears to have won that battle – with closure in the detention center matter possibly not far behind.

Some rescues deployed by Newport covered by Oregon Coast Beach Connection in the past:

Coast Guard Crews from Two States Rescue Disabled Vessel Off Oregon Coast

US Coast Guard Rescues Oregon Coast Whale Watch Vessel Disabled in Newport Waters

Hotels in Newport - Where to eat - Newport Maps and Virtual Tours

 

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