Portland, Oregon, said Wednesday it will issue a land use violation notice to the city’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building, accusing the facility of detaining people beyond the limits of what its land use approval allows.
The building’s conditional land use approval, in place since 2011, does not allow people to be kept overnight or held for more than 12 hours. The city alleges that this provision was violated 25 times over the 10-month period from last October through most of this July.
“U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement made clear detention limitation commitments to our community, and we believe they broke those policies more than two dozen times,” Portland Mayor Keith Wilson said in a news release. “I am proud of our team for conducting a thorough, thoughtful investigation, and referring the matter to the next steps in the land use violation process.”
The city said it will issue the notice on Thursday. ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Recently, the building has been the site of nightly protests, which peaked in June, with smaller clashes also occurring since then. Immigration and legal advocates often gather there during the day to help those arriving at the building, while protesters, often dressed in black and wearing helmets or masks, show up at night.
While disruptive to nearby residents, the protests are a far cry from the racial justice protests that gripped the city in 2020. They nevertheless have drawn the attention of President Donald Trump, who recently said he was considering sending in federal troops, as he has also threatened to do to combat crime in other cities. He signed an order Monday to send the National Guard into Memphis, Tennessee, and deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles over the summer and as part of his law enforcement takeover in Washington, D.C.
Most violent crime around the country has actually declined in recent years, including in Portland, where a recent report from the Major Cities Chiefs Association found that homicides from January through June decreased by 51% this year compared to the same period in 2024.
Under Portland’s sanctuary policy, city employees, including police officers, do not enforce federal immigration law. Oregon also has a sanctuary law that prohibits state and local law enforcement from participating in immigration enforcement without a warrant.
Portland said its permitting bureau launched an investigation into the ICE building in late July in response to formal complaints. It reviewed data released by ICE to the nonprofit Deportation Data Project under public records requests, which indicated that the most recent of the 25 detention violations between Oct. 1, 2024, and July 27, 2025 occurred on May 20, the city said.
Landowners have 30 days after receiving a notice of violation to correct the issue. A fine can be issued if there is “substantial evidence of violation,” the city said.
The city’s permitting bureau can also initiate a “reconsideration” of a land use approval by scheduling a hearing at least 60 days after a notice is given, the city said. Decisions from the hearings officer can be appealed to the city council.
