Marketplace - A small town's fight against ICE

Episode Date: March 19, 2026

Newport, Oregon is a small town on the coast with beautiful beach views. After the town’s rescue helicopter was taken to the southern border, the community came together against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In this episode, we talk to a local reporter who covered the story. Plus, we check on lower-than-expected January home sales numbers and jobless claims. Later, a drugstore owner in a “pharmacy desert,” and a look at the climate cost of war in Iran.Every story has an economic angle. Want some in your inbox? Subscribe to our daily or weekly newsletter.Marketplace is more than a radio show. Check out our original reporting and financial literacy content at marketplace.org — and consider making an investment in our future.

No script, no filter, just one of the funniest people on the planet sharing her unique take on modern life. Don't miss Fran Libowitz. May 8th, Roy Thompson Hall. It's the most fun you'll have listening to someone complain. Tickets at Roythompsonhall.com. On the show today, jobs, housing, and the climate impacts of war from American public media. This is Marketplace. In Denver, I'm Amy Scott, in for Kodagh.

Rizdal. It's Thursday, March 19th. Good to have you with us. We got another sign today that the U.S. job market is holding up. Okay. The Labor Department said new claims for unemployment benefits dropped more than expected last week. The number of people filing for the first time fell to 205,000, the lowest level since January. While one week does not make a trend, it is one more data point to back up the Fed's assessment yesterday that the labor market. appears to be pretty stable, even as the economic outlook is uncertain. Marketplace's Megan McCarty Carino has more. Weekly jobless claims are one of the first places we'd see signs that recent geopolitical turbulence is destabilizing the labor market. So far? This is consistent with what we understand to be kind of a boring job market. Mark Hamrick at Bankrate says it's basically the same low-hire, low-fire environment we've been talking about for months. A lack of new jobs means it's taking longer for unemployed people to find work, pushing continuing claims higher. But it looks like most firms are holding on to workers, says Elizabeth Crowfoot, principal economist at Lightcast.

It's a gradual rebalancing of the labor market, not a full-on deterioration. Which may sound surprising if you've been following the news, says Daniel Jow, Chief Economist at Glassdoor. There have been big layoff announcements from Amazon, Block, UPS, Meta. But when we actually look at the macro data, we see that layoffs are relatively similar to where they were before COVID. We aren't seeing this dramatic surge in layoffs. Some of those cuts might never show up in jobless claims, says Andy Challenger at Challenger Gray in Christmas. If you get let go from a large tech company and you get a severance package, there might not be a need for you to go claim that insurance.

Those job losses would show up in the unemployment rate, which as of last month was 4.4%, relatively low by historic standards. I'm Megan McCarty Carrino for Marketplace. We're coming up on the spring home buying market, but we're still catching up on data from earlier this year, thanks to the lingering effects from last fall's government shutdown. Today, the Census Bureau reported new home sales for January, and as Daniel Ackerman reports, the news was not great for builders. Seasonally adjusted sales were down more than 17 percent compared to December. On one hand, Lisa Sturdivant of Bright MLS expected some weakness.

There was a lot of wintry weather. People aren't usually out touring home sites during that weather. But she didn't think the numbers would be quite this bad. We saw sales at their lowest level since, October 2022. And that has caused some home builders and the lenders they work with to offer sweeteners for prospective buyers, says Tiffany Russell, a real estate agent in Austin, Texas. Those include below market mortgage rates. I'm seeing that they are building a lot of homes and giving the farm away on incentives.

For sellers, Russell is also being more conservative with asking price these days. We are pricing on the lower end of the comps of the area. because our buyers won't come through the door if we're even a bit overpriced. Rising mortgage rates in the past few weeks haven't helped, says Michael Orbino, a real estate agent in Bellevue, Washington. The spike in interest rates with conflict going on in the Middle East and oil prices have really disappointed some folks. That, plus ongoing worries about the job market, means the housing market is still kind of stuck. We've been at this for three years ever since the Fed changed their policy. Orbino says at this point he considers the slower housing market a new normal.

I'm Daniel Ackerman for Marketplace. Wall Street, singing the blues today. We'll have the details when we do the numbers. To buy one of those new houses Daniel Ackerman was talking about, most Americans need a mortgage. But there are some parts of the country where it's harder to get one. You've heard of food deserts and banking deserts. Sharon Cornelison, Director of Housing at the Consumer Federation of America, has studied mortgage deserts. She's here today to tell us about her work. Sharon, good to have you on.

Yeah, so glad to be on today. What exactly is a mortgage desert? How do you define it? Yeah, so a mortgage desert is a place where mortgages have become scarce. So there's not that many mortgages that are being used in that neighborhood. So many homes are instead bought and sold without a mortgage. We found that some mortgage deserts are vacation destinations where a lot of people buy second homes with cash. We found that in some other places, there are some really investor-heavy communities. Think about suburban Atlanta, where there's just a lot of investors competing with homebuyers. And then the final type is kind of communities that are more disinvested, where home values are usually low, and it's difficult for people to get a mortgage in these places. Yeah, I covered housing in Baltimore

for a long time, where people often had trouble getting mortgages because the home values were too low and especially when interest rates were low, the banks sort of wouldn't justify the cost. Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean, in my research, we found that in Baltimore, half of all homes were sold with cash. It's often very difficult to get a mortgage for a home that's worth like less than $100,000 or even $150,000. It's really a market that's not well covered right now by lenders. What are the impacts of this on equity in home ownership? Yeah, I mean, most people in order to become a homeowner, they need a mortgage, right? Like, it's really difficult to become a homeowner, especially a first-time homeowner. But even for existing homeowners, it's really

important to be able to kind of get access to a mortgage. Because without it, you know, let's say your roof starts to leak, where are you going to get the money from, right? A lot of people need to refinance to get some equity out of their home to maintain their home over time. So even not having access to a mortgage, kind of later in your homeownership journey, can be really difficult and can really undermine the equity that you can maintain over time. Now, just because there aren't a lot of mortgages in a given area, it doesn't mean homes aren't being bought and sold, right? Can you talk about how those deals are getting done and why that can be problematic? Yeah, so in many cases, we see that in those places, cash buyers have

an advantage, right, because people can't buy with a mortgage, so you kind of have to have cash. So we see that the playing field tilts towards investors. So it means that, local homeownership opportunities go down and less wealth is being built locally in the community, right? Another kind of alternative that we see emerging is often there's kind of exploitative alternatives that don't have a lot of consumer protections. For example, there could be like sellers financing where you have to enter into a land contract with a seller. But these kind of arrangements more often fail than they succeed. So in most cases it's much better for people to kind of have access to the standard 30-year mortgage with a lot of protections and kind of they know what they're

getting into. Now, some of this is because of reforms that were made after the big, you know, subprime mortgage crisis in the mid-2000s. Did that backfire in some ways? I think there have been some unintended consequences. I mean, the Dot Frank Act was really important to prevent kind of these kind of predatory mortgage products from emerging again. But especially at the bottom of, of the market for homes with very low values. Lenders can only charge up to a certain amount of points and fees if they want to originate the mortgage today under these protections. But it means that it's not really, a lot of lenders don't really see it worth their while

because they may spend as much time originating a $50,000 mortgage as they would originating a $500,000 mortgage. And they can get a lot more compensation in the latter case, right? So they go for the bigger mortgages better than the small mortgages. All right. Sharon Cornelison is at the Consumer Federation of America, where she wrote a report about mortgage deserts. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you. When we think about the costs of war, there are, of course, the lives lost, the people injured and displaced, the property and economic damage.

But there is also an environmental toll, whether it's the pollution, caused by bombs or the excess burning of fossil fuels. For more on how the U.S. Israeli war on Iran will affect environmental and human health, we reached out to Nita Crawford, a professor of international relations at the University of St. Andrews. We know that in the short term and in the local area, there is air pollution from fires, black rain, they described in Iran. that is when buildings and infrastructure burn, they put up a lot of particulate matter. Then we also know that there's been water pollution from the tankers that have been destroyed.

And then we know that there are toxic chemicals released in the water and in the air when all of these buildings are destroyed or the munitions are either detonated or. or they don't detonate and then are contaminating the ground as they decay. How about the climate effects? Warfighting machinery obviously burns a lot of fossil fuels, but this war is taking place in an area where there's a lot of oil and gas infrastructure. In any war, the emissions from the armaments as they get to the place that they're going to fight. So those are operational and installation, missions that are particular to war. And that's immediate. And then in the case of this particular

region, as you say, it's oil rich, natural gas rich, natural gas infrastructure has been targeted and damaged or destroyed. So what you see is there can be uncontrolled release of the methane. So then in addition, even longer term, military spending will go up. Military spending will go up for the direct combatants and it will increase for those in the region. And when military spending goes up, military emissions increase. They're tightly correlated. And the United States military was already the biggest institutional greenhouse gas emitter in the world, right? That's correct. So last year, I'm sorry, well, 2024, which is the most recent year for which we have emissions data, the emissions profile of the U.S. military at 47 million metric tons that year was greater than many countries,

about the same size as the emissions of countries like Portugal. But one of the reasons we don't know all of the military emissions of every country in the world is that the United States fought very hard at the Kyoto Protocol negotiations in 1998 to exclude mandatory reporting of military emissions. So we know that we have either my calculations or other people's calculations of U.S. military emissions going back to 1975. But we don't have every other countries. But it is safe to say of the United States military that it is the largest military emitter in the world. Many have pointed this out that this war and also the war in Ukraine and the energy shocks that resulted have only strengthened the case for transitioning away from our dependence.

on fossil fuels. Do you think this will give political leaders any more sense of urgency? Well, to me, the UN climate reporting should give us enough urgency. The planet is warming at an unprecedented rate. If we need more urgency, perhaps this would be it. But the problem with high military spending for every country is that's less money to put into transitioning to renewable. And even in countries like the one I live in, Great Britain, which are not directly involved in this conflict, they have increased their military spending because of the war in Ukraine. Now, that military spending is increasing emissions, and that money is not available for a transition. It's an opportunity cost.

Nita Crawford is at the University of St. Andrews and also affiliated with Brown University's Costs of War Project. Thank you so much. pleasure to be with you. For more of our climate reporting, check out our podcast, How We Survive. Kai hosted a whole season about the military and climate change, wherever you get your podcast. Coming up. They never came out and said, we are planning a really nifty detention center here.

There were signs, though. But first, let's do the numbers. Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 203 points, 4 tenths percent, a close of 46,000 The NASDAQ lost 61 points, 3 tenths percent, a finish at 22,090, and the S&P 500 gave up 18 points. Also 3 tenths percent, it ended 6606. Daniel Ackerman was just talking about January's sluggish new home sales, home builder Lenar Corporation slumped one and one-tenth percent. The online marketplace Zillow dwindled one and eight-tenths percent. Rocket companies, the mortgage lender and brokerage jumped three percent.

Energy facilities are getting hit on many fronts in the Iran War. Brent crude hit a high of $1190 a barrel today and settled at 106. Gas in the U.S. average 388 a gallon. You're listening to Marketplace. This is Marketplace. I'm Amy Scott. We heard earlier in the show about mortgage deserts, but how about pharmacy deserts? According to a 2024 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Nearly half of all counties in the U.S. have at least one 10-mile area without a retail pharmacy.

And rural pharmacies are feeling that pressure. That brings us to the latest installment of our series, My Economy, where we're bringing you stories from health care all this week. I'm Julie Perkins. I own Batson's Strangen Family Market in Howard, Kansas. I'm a pharmacist with the pharmacy. I bought it in 1995 in 2005. before our grocery store in town went out of business. So we remodeled, put in a full-line grocery store

because I was afraid if we didn't have a grocery store here in the county, that the pharmacy wouldn't be able to exist either. So here we are today. 80% of my prescriptions are through one of the three PBMs, pharmacy benefit managers. They are the go-between, between us and the insurance companies, They tell us how much they will pay us. They just have so much control, which has taken all of the control out of my hands. So there's what's called a dispensing fee.

To come up with that fee per prescription, you add in your pharmacist time, your technician time, the electricity, the label, the bottle, all the overhead that a regular business has. Well, when 80 to 85% of the prescriptions are underneath that minimum that we need to break even, it doesn't pencil out. There are some scripts that I will fill that I get 12 cents over what it costs me to buy that. That doesn't even pay for my label, my lid, and the bottle. The last 10, 15 years, it's been very, very difficult. Mail order has pulled away a lot of my business from me. the pharmacy. So we do some floral. We do gift wrapping. We have a soda fountain. I just don't know how more diversified I can get. The clientele we have are very faithful. They all say they need me,

but that doesn't pay the bills. So I picked pharmacy because I thought it would be a comfortable living. Right now, it's not comfortable. But we're the only pharmacy and grocery store. in the whole county. Without me, people will have to drive 35 minutes just to get basic essentials. So this community just needs, needs me. Julie Perkins, pharmacist and owner of Batson's drugstore and family market in Howard, Kansas. Newport, Oregon is a small town on the coast, known for its beautiful beaches and its seafood industry, particularly dungeon. crab. But recently, there's been trouble in paradise. And as in other bigger U.S. cities, the community

has come together over concerns about the Trump administration's immigration enforcement efforts. Garrett Epps wrote about it for the Washington Monthly. Thanks for being here, Garrett. Thanks for having me. So the meat of your story starts with a disappearing helicopter. Can you briefly summarize what happened? The helicopter was something that was one, by the Newport Fisherman's Wives, a very highly organized group of families of the people who staffed the fishery. The rescue helicopters were stationed. Each was about 100 miles away. So they just went to their members of Congress and they said, we need the helicopter here because there's so much danger. And they got Congress to pass a special statute that said the Coast Guard couldn't move an air

station without giving 18 months public notice. So this was the situation until last fall when they found out that with no notice, the Department of Homeland Security had taken the helicopter and moved it down to the southern border. So the idea being that the priority now is interdicting migrants coming in from Mexico, that's more important than the Coast Guard's function of providing rescue. And then people in town realized that wasn't all, right? There was there were plans. plans for a big ICE detention center? Well, you know, they never came out and said, we are planning a really nifty detention center here.

What they did do is federal contractors began contacting local businesses and saying things like, let's suppose we need to rent 200 hotel rooms for federal employees who might be coming in at some facility or other. And it became clear that Department of Homeland Security had its eye on the Newport. airport and that they were planning to put in an ICE detention center there, but they gave no notice and they did not respond to questions from city officials or members of the public or members of Congress. And people weren't happy about this. Tell me about the town meeting over what was happening. Newport is a town of 10,000 folks. 800 people showed up. No one spoke in favor of an ice facility.

people said it's unfair. That ICE is treating people badly. The second thing was, what's going to happen to our economy? Because tourism and seafood both function significantly with immigrant labor. And the third thing is, what's this going to do to tourism? So this is perceived as a kind of existential threat to the town on moral, political, and economic levels. So the town pushed back. They fought to keep their helicopter or get it back and to stop this detention center.

Did they win? Where did things stand now? Well, they got a preliminary injunction from a federal court saying that ICE could not move the helicopter out of Newport because the statute said it had to remain there for the 18-month period. And they finally got a statement from ICE that said, we have no plans to put a facility in. And, you know, I can't help but add that the community was and remains extremely skeptical of these assurances. The dispute is not over. What lessons do you think are in this story for other towns that are facing this choice about whether to allow ICE detention centers?

I think what's interesting is the way that people immediately perceived that this would be bad for the community on a number of levels that transcended. simply whether you like the Trump administration. It is the economy, our neighbors, the people that live here, whether we're going to be able to continue with the life that we want here on the Oregon coast. So I think if a community stands together, they may be able to avoid having the negative effects of an ICE facility in their town. Garrett Epps is the Legal Affairs Editor at the Washington Monthly. Thanks so much. Thank you. Enjoyed it. This final note on the way out today, we talked earlier about how reforms in the Dodd-Frank Act after the financial crisis have contributed to the dearth of mortgages in some communities. Today, the Federal Reserve and other banking regulators propose some changes. Officials say will encourage more lending. Under the proposals, banks would have to set aside less capital to protect against losses, like the ones that almost took down the economy back in 2008.

Our daily production team includes Livy Burdette, Andy Corbin, Maria Hollenhorst, Sarah Leeson, Sean McHenry, Michaela Sia, and Sophia Terrenzio. Will Story is the supervising senior producer. And I'm Amy Scott. We will see you tomorrow. This is APN. Hey, David Brancaccio here. I hope you're well, and that your passport. is up to date because I am hosting a trip to Italy this fall, and you, you are invited. Stay at a world-class Tuscan villa and step into the world of the Medici, the formidable family, whose influence and power helped give rise to the Renaissance and the art we still celebrate today, and not to mention the banking system. We're going to visit the world's oldest bank,

swim in the thermal spa waters in Monte Cattini, and take in the art of the Uffizi. All of this, and then we'll try to put it all into context with great conversation over even better meals and wine tasting. Please join me and know this. Buying into this trip will provide essential support for public media. Discover more about this fall's Tuscany adventure at Marketplace.org slash travel to reserve your spot today. That's Marketplace.org slash travel.