Coast Guard helicopter must remain in Newport, federal judge says in temporary order

A federal judge on Monday night blocked the closure of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Newport Air Facility, finding Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s actions violated the law.

U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken issued a temporary restraining order just three days after a Newport nonprofit supporting commercial fishermen joined with Lincoln County and filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to return the Coast Guard’s rescue helicopter to the coastal city before the start of the Dungeness crab fishing season.

The Newport Fishermen’s Wives and Lincoln County filed the suit after they learned the Coast Guard had either ceased or drastically reduced its operations at the Newport Air Facility and moved its rescue helicopter about 70 miles south to North Bend.

“The Court concludes that the danger presented by the lack of rescue helicopter coverage justifies” the granting of the temporary order “on an expedited basis,” Aiken wrote in a 14-page opinion signed at 6:37 p.m.

Aiken ruled before the federal government had responded to the lawsuit or the motion for a temporary restraining order.

She ordered the federal government to restore the Coast Guard rescue helicopter to the Newport facility with full operational capabilities and personnel support.

“Plaintiffs have made a compelling showing that public safety, and by extension the public interest, are deeply intertwined with the continued operation of the Newport Air Facility, particularly as the fishermen prepare for the most dangerous season of the year,” Aiken wrote.

The judge found that the Homeland Security secretary failed to provide any notification to Congress before closing or significantly reducing the use of the Coast Guard air facility. Noem also failed to hold any public meetings or issue any notice to provide opportunity for the public to comment on the proposal, as required by law, Aiken found.

“The evidence before the Court at this juncture is that those procedures were not followed and the Court can discern no hardship to Defendants in an injunction requiring them to continue operating the Newport Air Facility as they have for the better part of four decades,” Aiken wrote.

A spokesperson for the Homeland Security Department said in an email, “These efforts to micromanage U.S. Coast Guard operations via lawsuit are completely intrusive, and they obstruct the work of the Service’s patriotic men and women.”

The agency said the Coast Guard is “always ready to respond to search and rescue needs on the Oregon Coast, just as it always has been. Any suggestion otherwise is an insult to the hard, heroic work the men and women of the Coast Guard put in every day.”

Attorney Eric J. Brickenstein, one of the lawyers representing Lincoln County and the Newport Fishermen’s Wives, said, “We welcome the Court’s ruling and prompt action in this important case.” He said the plaintiffs look forward to a future hearing on a preliminary injunction.

The state of Oregon filed its own lawsuit earlier Monday and asked that both suits be consolidated.

“This is a reminder that public safety comes first and the government must follow the law,” Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield said Monday night of the judge’s ruling.

The Coast Guard opened a temporary Newport Air Facility in 1987 after the loss of the crew of the fishing vessel Lasseigne two years earlier. The Newport Fishermen’s Wives pushed then to secure a rapid-response Coast Guard helicopter for Oregon’s central coast.

By 1992, Congress approved funding for a permanent Newport Air Facility, which was dedicated in 1994, according to Aiken’s opinion.

In the fall, the fishing group and the county learned that the Coast Guard had dramatically reduced operations in Newport and was in the process of permanently closing the facility.

The rescue helicopter’s move to North Bend would drastically increase the response times from between 15 and 30 minutes to between 60 and 90 minutes in the case of a crisis, Aiken wrote.

Between 2000 and 2019, 44 commercial fishermen perished in the waters off Oregon, including 12 off Newport, according to court records.

The plaintiffs argued that Oregon coastal waters average 50 to 54 degrees year-round, and anyone who falls off a vessel is in immediate life-threatening danger.

Between 2014 and 2025, the Coast Guard rescue helicopter based in Newport rescued about 500 people, including 30 commercial fishermen whose lives were saved at sea, according to court records.

Taunette Dixon of Toledo, who owns a commercial fishing vessel and is on the board of Newport Fishermen’s Wives, said her fishing boat will be crossing the Yaquina Bay bar soon to drop Dungeness crab pots.

“If the helicopter is not immediately returned, my vessel and crew will be forced to take this dangerous trip without the safety net of a rescue helicopter in the close vicinity,” she wrote to the court in a sworn declaration. “I not only have a family member on our boat, but we also have a close bond with all our crew, and it is my responsibility to keep our crew safe.”

The lawsuits seeking to keep the Coast Guard helicopter in Newport were filed amid concerns by local, state and federal lawmakers that Noem planned to open a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center at the Newport Municipal Airport.

Public job postings for “detention officers” based in Newport, a request for septic tank services and a bid to lease four vacant acres at the airport all suggest ICE is planning to build a detention facility, elected officials have said.

It’s the second time Newport Fishermen’s Wives and Lincoln County have turned to the court to intervene to keep the helicopter in Newport. The last time was 11 years ago after the Coast Guard notified the county of a decision to close the Newport Air Facility at the end of November 2014. While the suit was pending, former President Barack Obama signed the Howard Coble Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Act into law, prohibiting its closure until January 2016, according to the suit.

Although that law is no longer in effect, it required Congress to be notified before any reduction in the use of a Coast Guard air facility and allowed for community input and formal risk assessments before the Coast Guard could relocate or reduce an air station, the suit said.

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