NEWPORT— The chilly breeze and sandy shores in this Oregon fishing city have shielded this town from scorching heat for decades. But despite the mist in the air, rumors here spread like wildfire.

The latest of those hunches came straight from city officials and has since commanded national attention. Newport City Manager Nina Vetter and Mayor Jan Kaplan signed onto a Nov. 10 statement suggesting the Trump administration could be planning Oregon’s first Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility. The site they suspected? The municipal airport of the city, home to more than 10,000 people.

All they had were a few clues. A life-saving rescue helicopter had just been relocated from the Coast Guard’s Newport Municipal Air facility to a station in North Bend nearly 70 miles away

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