City to File Land Use Violation Against South Portland ICE Facility

The city of Portland announced plans Wednesday to file a land use violation against the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in South Portland this week.

“Following an investigation, the City of Portland will send a land use violation notice this Friday for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in [South] Portland,” said city spokesman Cody Bowman, “launching a process to determine whether the site’s detention practices comply with the conditions of the site’s land use approval.”

The city said in its statement that, based on federal government records, it identified “more than two dozen detention policy violations of the facility’s land use conditions of approval with the city, which does not allow detainees to be kept overnight or held for more than 12 hours.”

The ICE facility on South Macadam Avenue has been the site of frequent clashes this spring and summer between protesters and federal officers, some resulting in arrests.

This spring, the Portland City Council debated whether to revoke ICE’s permit to operate its South Portland facility, but ultimately did not, saying the city’s hands were tied so long as ICE had broken no rules it had agreed to.

But now, the city is stating that ICE did, in fact, break the rules of the agreement. That finding gives city leaders a chance to revisit the ICE facility’s future, and whether the city could shut it down through a formal process.

“In response to formal complaints, the city’s permitting bureau launched an investigation in late July,” the city noted in its statement. “Records indicate that detainees were held beyond the facility’s 12-hour limit or kept overnight 25 times between October 1, 2024, and July 27, 2025.”

After the city files the violation, the respondent has 30 days to right the issue.

According to the city, Portland Permitting & Development could ask that a city hearings officer reconsider the city’s land use approval of the ICE facility. Should the hearing officer’s determination be challenged, the appeal would come before the City Council.