'Skeptical' construction contractors push back on Trump’s DHS over safety concerns

FILE PHOTO: U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem holds a press conference, in Los Angeles, California, U.S., June 12, 2025. REUTERS/Aude Guerrucci/File Photo

Plans for the construction of an ICE detention facility are facing push back from construction contractors who remain "skeptical" that the facility will "meet the agency’s own bare minimum care requirements for detainees," according to a report from NOTUS.

The report details "previously unreported federal contracting documents" viewed by NOTUS regarding the planned construction of a 200-person ICE detention facility in Newport, Oregon. The relatively small coastal city is situated roughly two hours southwest of Portland, which has been a hotbed for ICE activity in recent months amid President Donald Trump's push to target cities led by Democrats.

In the documents, contractors for the project expressed doubts that the facility would be large enough to meet the minimum care requirements for 200 detainees, as laid out in the National Detention Standards. ICE officials themselves admitted during an Oct. 31 tour of the facility that it was a "small area."

"Let’s be honest, there’s not enough square footage for us to meet that in full," an anonymous contractor was quoted as saying in a document about the site tour.

Another contractor familiar with the contract spoke directly with NOTUS, saying, "there’s no way they can meet their own standards of care given the space they’ve made available."

One aspect of the National Detention Standards that is particularly relevant to this facility in Oregon is the requirement for a certain amount of living space per detainee held, something that contractors are openly concerned about. In response to these issues, government officials were dismissive, according to NOTUS, and suggested that these requirements could be waived in favor of keeping the project on track. The anonymous contractor speaking with NOTUS also expressed over how far this willingness to waive standards might go.

"How many of their own standards are they going to waive away?" the contractor said.

In the documents, the government claimed that they would be moving detainees out of the space within 72 hours of their arrival, which would help avoid the threshold for greater standards of care. They also, however, said that some stays could last as long as 10 days, to which contractors were again unsure how to make work with the space available.

The infrastructure of the facility would include various sorts of tents for housing detainees, raising further concerns about the safety and feasibility of it. NOTUS spoke with Democratic Rep. Val Hoyle, whose district includes Newport, about the situation. Hoyle said she has not received any information about the project from the Department of Homeland Security, despite numerous requests.

"Hard-sided and soft-sided tents with those conditions off the coast, with incredibly strong winds in a tsunami zone, with the kind of cold and weather that we have is insane," the congresswoman said. "But with this administration, it appears the cruelty is the point."

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