A masked federal agent leaves the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Portland, Ore., as demonstrators dance and protest outside shortly after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled that the National Guard can deploy to the city on Monday, Oct. 20, 2025.
Eli Imadali / OPB
A series of job postings for an immigration detention facility in the Portland area appear to show the federal government’s latest efforts to expand its operations in Oregon.
Job postings from Acuity International, a federal contractor, state the firm is hiring a warden/facility director to “serve as primary liaison with ICE officials, legal representative, and community partners.”
Other positions include an operations manager, a security manager and an unarmed guard supervisor.
All note: “Position dependent upon successful contract award.” The postings were first reported by KGW.
For the past several weeks, speculation about a possible immigration detention facility has centered on Oregon’s coast.
Since November, federal contractors have been making inquiries into the Newport area. While some have been taken down, a separate posting Thursday from Acuity shows the company is actively hiring a Case Processing Specialist in Newport. According to the description, the job will provide “administrative and case management support for ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) at the detention facility.”
This latest development suggests the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is actively working to open a detention facility in Oregon, with several private companies pursuing the project in multiple locations.
Oregon does not have any long-term immigration detention facilities. State law prohibits local jails from contracting with federal immigration agencies to house people and states that “a person may not operate a private immigration detention facility,” within Oregon.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operates several outposts in Oregon, including a facility in Portland where protesters have rallied against the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
Those protests resulted in President Donald Trump calling up a National Guard deployment, which has so far been blocked by a federal judge.
The ICE building in South Portland does have detention cells. But, per a 2011 land use agreement with the city of Portland and the building’s private owner, ICE is prohibited from holding people beyond 12 hours or overnight.
However, the city found ICE violated that agreement in September. That finding has been challenged by the property owner and is not yet final.
City leaders have looked at other avenues to hold ICE to accountable in Portland.
This week, Portland City Council adopted new fees for private property owners who lease to detention facilities.
Mayor Keith Wilson’s office knows little about any intent by ICE to expand in Portland, according to city spokesperson Cody Bowman.
“The City of Portland continues to receive limited and incomplete information from the federal government regarding ongoing ICE matters,” Bowman said. “We have no additional information beyond what has been publicly posted. Mayor Wilson strongly opposes the presence of any ICE detention facility in Portland.”
A spokesperson for ICE directed questions about the job posting to the company. Officials with Acuity International did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the Portland area job postings.
