Mayor Wilson warns of ‘disaster waiting to happen’ at ICE facility in Newsweek op-ed

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — As Portland continues to be a prominent target of the Trump administration, Mayor Keith Wilson shared his perspective in an opinion piece for Newsweek, urging federal government officials to change their tactics before it’s too late.

Published Sunday morning and titled “Portland Mayor: ICE Facility Is a Disaster Waiting To Happen,” Wilson

detailed his time visiting the building in South Portland when summoned to meet with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and President Trump adviser Corey Lewandowski.

It was there he claimed to observe “a mess of overflowing dumpsters, loose body armor and crowd control munitions, as well as a broken HVAC air conditioning system that raised both temperatures and tempers in the aging building.”

Additionally, Wilson mentioned Sec. Noem’s denied regional journalists access to the facility, “opting instead to fly in the least credible, most ideologically compromised hangers-on that MAGA social media has to offer.”

He cited similar concern for the federal agents and personnel who were far from home, overworked and unpaid in the midst of the government shutdown.

“I can only imagine the family and financial stress they are under as they are forced to make daily, split-second decisions with immense human consequences,” Wilson wrote.

The mayor also cited several incidents of unprovoked attacks by federal agents against protesters. For one, a teenager was caught on camera being sprayed in the face by chemical irritants, senior citizens were knocked down and an agent threatened to shoot an ambulance driver. Further, The Cottonwood School, a K-8 charter school located near the ICE building, was forced to relocate due to the ongoing protests.

“While I’ve been assured there has been disciplinary action for some of these incidents, I have no way of verifying that any accountability has taken place, or if the federal agents responsible have simply been placed on a plane to brutalize and traumatize another community,” Wilson added.

Wilson then referred to Noem’s visit as “a missed opportunity” and “a great shame,” noting how they could have discussed how the federal government could improve local law enforcement nationally through the standards set by the Portland Police Bureau.

However, what happened, Wilson claimed, was a “blindly expensive, taxpayer-funded and ultimately unconvincing whistle-stop tour intended to prop up a ludicrous fable of domestic terrorism and conspiracy.”

Noem later claimed Gov. Tina Kotek and Wilson were covering up terrorism on Portland’s streets while actively helping Antifa. Both Mayor Wilson and Portland Police Chief Bob Day have publicly rejected that claim.

In his op-ed, Wilson further detailed what he sees as other potential “links in the accident chain,” with ICE upping recruitment tactics while dropping applicant standards, as well as increasing sign-on bonuses. Others include the rising deaths in ICE facilities across the country, as well as clashes with protesters “due primarily to poor decision-making and tactics,” he claims.   

Given these observations, Wilson encouraged the Trump administration to “choose another path.”

“Every accident is preventable, and you are running out of time to prevent one in Portland,” he wrote.