SAN ANTONIO – The plans to turn an East Side warehouse into a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility have some residents and San Antonio officials looking to push back.
But what are their options to actually do so?
The Department of Homeland Security has acquired a roughly 640,000-square-foot warehouse at 542 Southeast Loop 410 for more than $66 million, according to Bexar County property records.
An ICE spokesperson confirmed last week the agency had bought land and a facility in San Antonio, though it didn’t specify where, and indicated it would be used as a detention facility.
Reporting by the Dallas Morning News and Washington Post indicates the site could be used as “processing center” with up to 1,500 beds — part of a larger, feeder system meant to help speed up deportations amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
The ICE spokesperson said money from the “One Big Beautiful Bill” provided new funding to expand detention space. The agency did not answer additional questions from KSAT on Wednesday about its specific plans for the location, the timeline for setting it up as a detention facility or what regulatory hurdles it still needs to clear.
Local options for opposing the facility appear limited. Federal facilities are not required to follow city zoning rules, rezoning processes or local permitting requirements, a city spokesman told KSAT.
Still, the San Antonio City Council is scheduled Thursday morning to discuss at least having city staff evaluate some possibilities to block the plans, including a moratorium on establishing non-municipal detention facilities, lobbying for federal legislation and action to prevent or end the use of a facility, and determining whether “facilities and activities comply with applicable federal laws, including environmental law.”
A vote on Thursday wouldn’t be to take action on any of those ideas. It would just direct city staff to investigate those avenues.
The discussion was prompted by a memo filed Feb. 5 by Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez (D2), Councilman Ed Mungia (D4), Councilwoman Teri Castillo (D5), and Councilman Ric Galvan (D6), just two days after news broke of the warehouse sale.
Their memo includes requests to evaluate various strategies related to immigration issues, not just the ICE facility, though Mungia confirmed to KSAT on Wednesday there has been closed-door discussion on that subject.
“I think we still need some public answers about what can and can’t be done,” he told KSAT. “I think that’s going to be the best clarity, is to have that discussion in public so that the whole community can watch.”
The environmental angle hinted at in the council members’ memo has also been noted by Bexar County Precinct 4 Commissioner Tommy Calvert, a Democrat, who believes there might be an opportunity to file an injunction to delay or stop the project because he suspects ICE may not have done an environmental impact study.
“Those environmental impacts studies have to be conducted by ICE in order to ensure that there is consideration for the environmental impacts of a detention facility of that size and magnitude on the community,” he told KSAT on Feb. 3, pointing to the Essence Preparatory Public School on the other side of Loop 410, Herman Hirsch Elementary School a more than two-mile walk away, and “neighbors next door.”
Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones sent a letter Wednesday to the city’s federal delegation, asking them to vote against any funding bill that would put resources toward the facility.
“To be perfectly clear, we do not want this ICE facility in our community and ask that you please not fund it,” she wrote.
Democratic Congressman Henry Cuellar’s district includes the area around the site. In an emailed statement to KSAT on Thursday, he signaled his opposition to the facility but didn’t specify what tools might be used to fight it.
“As Ranking Member of the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, I’m opposed to this project and demand clear answers from ICE. If federal dollars are being used – particularly funds from the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB), which I voted against – there has to be full transparency and accountability to the public. In the meantime, I’m pressing for a detailed briefing and reviewing every legislative and appropriations tool available in regards to this project. I don’t believe this is useful to taxpayers’ dollars and I do not support it."
U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D, TX-28)
Thursday’s council discussion is also expected to include whether the city can avoid contracting with vendors that also have contracts with — or provide services for — ICE detention facilities.
“I think the majority of folks don’t want this here. And we should reflect that in the businesses we do business with of the city,” Mungia said.
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