For the first half of the summer, the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement field office in Medford, Oregon, remained relatively quiet. It was out of the way, tucked up against the regional airport and next to a preschool, a laundromat, and an undeveloped lot.

A group of local volunteers monitoring ICE activity noticed something new on July 30. Vehicles from the Federal Protective Service, a law enforcement agency that secures federal facilities, were parked outside. Behind the barbed-wire fence, a long, white bus with tinted windows idled behind the gates with the words “GEO Transport Inc.” emblazoned on its side.

Grace Warner, a volunteer who just arrived that morning to spot at the ICE facility, was immediately concerned.

“We’d never seen a bus like that there before,” she said.

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