Here’s a suggestion that President Trump will never consider. Instead of sending the National Guard into Portland to quell the unending civil unrest at the ICE facility, just muscle the federal government out of the lease, signed in 2011, and move operations to the outskirts of the metro area. Abandon the South Waterfront, thereby bringing peace to residents who make their homes there. Make the Old Spaghetti Factory restaurant—accessible only by passing through the ongoing conflict—safe for families again.
The building is a cool-looking mini-skyscraper, boxy, minimalist, very Ayn Rand. Why not let some local developer turn it into a non-controversial dental arts and wellness center? Or, in an ultimate act of irony, the City of Portland, or the State of Oregon, could lease it for use as an illegal immigrant legal aid nonprofit.
The current location is close to everything progressive and dissident in the city. You can drive to ICE from downtown or the Portlandia neighborhood precincts in five minutes. Guess who’s never going to stop showing up?
Just break the lease, or wait until the current lease period is up, and get the hell out. Find a concrete block building in, for example, the scrublands of Troutdale, and construct a detention center there. Undoubtedly, some paid protestors would make the trek to Troutdale. But what if the razor-wired main gate to the new facility was a football field away from the entrance to the building? Hanging out to cause unrest near Macadam Ave., an arterial in proximity to eateries, grocery stores, and conceivable safe-houses is one thing. Sustaining a perpetual protest in a stubble-field surrounded by tilt-up business parks full of business-people and employees who have no use for antifa’s message is another. It gets cold during the winter, scorching hot in summer—there’s little tree canopy. The local affiliate media, which reliably spins coverage critical of the President for fear of irretrievably offending their viewership, would have a ways to go to cover the never-ending story.
Trump will not do this—even if it makes economic sense. For him, such a withdrawal would be an onerous capitulation to far-left agitators and their political enablers. A domestic Bagram Air Force Base-style retreat. Even if it makes economic sense; while a new facility would be costly to build-to-suit in the contemporary construction market, how much in addition to standard operating costs is spent to keep open a location whose doorstep is constantly under siege?
The Trump Administration will not abandon ICE to the mob. And should the restraining order preventing him from deploying the Guard be overturned, which constitutionalists say is likely, the deployment will make matters worse before they get better. Better for the ICE officers and staff, the Old Spaghetti Factory, nearby residents, and possibly even undocumented immigrants who may have important business with the agency.
But after it gets better, if ICE is still there, it will get worse again.