City Will File Land Use Violation Against Southwest Portland ICE Facility

The city of Portland on Wednesday announced plans to file a land use violation against the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Southwest 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 Southwest 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 has been the site of frequent clashes this spring and summer between protestors 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 their 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 leadership 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.

The Portland Permitting and Development office, according to the city, could ask ask that a city hearings officer reconsider the city’s land use approval with the ICE facility. Should the hearing officer’s determination be challenged, the appeal would come in front of the City Council.