A Portland hearings officer Friday upheld a city land use violation issued against the owner of the building currently occupied by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The ruling moves the city a step closer to begin issuing fines against the property owners, starting at $981 monthly.
FILE - Protests take place at Portland's Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland, Ore., Feb. 15, 2026.
John Rudoff for OPB
The decision follows months of back-and-forth between the city and the owners of the South Portland ICE building, who lease the space to ICE.
The decision isn’t final — a court challenge from the attorneys representing the building owners has temporarily placed enforcement on hold. Attorneys representing the building owners did not immediately respond to OPB’s request for comment.
The land use violation is twofold: The city found that the building’s owners breached a stipulation of the property agreement with the city, which prohibits ICE from holding detainees in the building overnight or for more than 12 hours. The city also determined that the owners’ decision to cover their first-floor windows with plywood violated city building code.
If the building owners don’t demonstrate to the city that they’re no longer violating the land use rules — proving that the plywood is gone and people aren’t being detained past the allowed time period — they will be fined $981 each month. That bill will double after two months, until corrections are made.
The city’s permitting office first issued a land use violation against the property owners last September, when the ICE building had become a frequent focus of protests against the Trump administration. Attorneys for the ownership group appealed that order in May, arguing that the decision violated their client’s First Amendment right to lease a building to any tenant, including ICE.
City Hearings Officer Charles Koutras dismissed this allegation in the ruling released Friday.
“Appellant’s First Amendment expressive association and expressive conduct claims do not provide a basis for dismissal or modification of either cited violation,” he wrote.
Attorneys for the building owners had attempted to keep the decision from being released. In May and June, attorneys asked a judge to keep the city hearings office from releasing its decision, arguing that Koutras had unfairly sped up the appeals process in a manner that expressed bias against the building owners. That request was granted, with a judge ordering the city to not release the ruling. The city asked the county courts to dismiss this request.
On Friday, Multnomah County Circuit Court Steffan Alexander allowed the city to release the land use decision. But it’s not enforceable.
On Aug. 14, the court will consider the legal claims of bias against Koutras. If the court agrees he acted with prejudice, the case would likely be assigned to a new hearings officer — starting the process over again from the beginning. If the court sides with the city, it’s likely the city can begin enforcing its fines against the building owners.
Clarification: On Wednesday, the city informed OPB that it cannot begin imposing fines against the ICE property owner until a further court hearing. The city also shared a newly updated fee rate. OPB has updated this story to reflect that information.
