Portland’s mayor and a city councilor announced on Monday they’re contributing a total of $20,000 out of their office budgets to support the city of Newport’s legal fight to bar a federal contractor from opening an immigration detention center at or near the Newport Municipal Airport.

“Newport’s fight is Oregon’s fight,” Mayor Keith Wilson said Monday. “This facility would have consequences far beyond Newport.”

The contributions – $10,000 from the Portland mayor’s office budget and $10,000 from Councilor Steve Novick’s office budget – were made in direct response to a formal request from Newport Mayor Jan Kaplan. Newport has spent more than $300,000 in its legal challenge and raised $50,000. Other communities – including Ashland, Yachats and Benton County – also have donated money.

“Just as we share resources with other communities when they’re fighting fires, we should help to make sure Newport has the legal resources it needs to fight ICE,” Novick said. He said when he heard that Mayor Wilson’s staff was going to put up a $20,000 contribution, he decided he could share the cost from his office budget.

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A federal immigration official confirmed earlier this year that the Trump administration was eyeing a Newport air facility for a temporary detention center and had started an environmental analysis. It scrapped the idea when relocation of a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter to make way for the project raised a public furor.

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Newport and the state filed a lawsuit in federal court in December to try to block any attempt by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to build and operate a temporary detention center in Newport.

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The city of Newport and Oregon had suspected that ICE planned to convert an air facility at the Newport Municipal Airport into an ICE holding and processing center that could house up to 200 people, including immigrants taken into custody in Portland and within a 350-mile radius of Newport.

The city of Newport alleged that a contractor sent a notice of intent to lease 4.3 acres of land at the airport for “federal operations,” beginning in December 2025 and was investigating obtaining another 10-plus acres of land from the city and the airport. The contractor also inquired about reserving up to 200 hotel rooms for up to a year in Newport.

The state alleged that ICE solicited contractors to do construction and perform health services at a holding facility as early as January of this year and that a contractor specializing in refugee care was seeking people to fill 12 jobs in Newport listed as “hazardous duty.”