Newport Pilots Against ICE

By Brian Bahouth

On Sunday November 23, at the Newport Municipal Airport, maybe a dozen local pilots huddled near the entrance to the press conference with U.S. Senator Ron Wyden. Dave Koester was among them and handed me a brief statement on a piece of paper describing their opposition to a possible Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility at the airport. Koester is a pilot and commercial fisherman.  

To more fully illustrate the point, Koester and a group of pilots recently painted the words “NO ICE” on their hanger in six-foot-tall letters.

I asked Dave Koester if he thought the possibility of an ICE detention center at the airport is more than just a political issue.

“It can be construed from a lot of different angles. I think that there’s concerns on some people’s minds about the economic impact of the stain of a detention facility on the town of Newport. There’s concerns about the loss of the helicopter and the safety of the fishing and recreational fleet and people on the beaches, the surfers that they save every year, over and over, lots of different angles of concern. 

“My personal concern is that I care about our immigrant community. I care about their constitutional rights, and I can’t imagine having a facility in eyesight where people are absolutely being detained against their will, with no recourse, no representation. That is unthinkable to me, and I just can’t let that happen,” Koester said.

Is there anything else you would add, I asked.

“What I want to add is that it’s time for all Americans to come together. There are people who feel the opposite of how I feel, and I want them to know that I am more than willing to listen, and we all need to be that way with each other. 

“There’s no longer red and blue, because when they separate us by red and blue, it’s really, really easy for them to separate us by white and brown. Makes that really simple. 

“So now what we need is all of us come together and listen, agree to disagree where we can. We’re in a democracy. Let’s use those levers and gears to the best of our ability, but let’s do it with respect and without calling people un-American or traitors or things like that. Let’s bring it together. 

“And it’s also time for all of us to get visible,” Koester continued. “People are now showing up at townhalls. We’re showing up on no Kings Day, things like that. But it’s time for yard signs. It’s time for bumper stickers. It’s time for window signs. It’s time for lapel pins. This has to get visible. 

“This is our moment for our generation. We’ve seen things happen. You know that we’ve seen internment of the Japanese during World War Two. We’ve seen things happen in American history that have only been read about by me and my generation as a 50 something-year-old. But now, we’re looking at something that needs to be changed.”