SAN ANTONIO – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement intends to make a 640,000-square-foot East Side warehouse operational as an immigration processing facility in spring 2027, the agency’s acting director said in a letter to San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones.
ICE acting director David J. Venturella said the facility will be capable of housing an estimated 1,000 to 1,500 detainees at a time, as part of its strategy to acquire “non-traditional facilities” that will be retrofitted to the agency’s standards.
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Although ICE intends to have it operational by the second quarter of Fiscal Year 2027, Venturella said no contracts have been awarded for the facility. The federal government’s fiscal year runs from October to September.
The information was provided June 22 in response to two letters sent by Mayor Jones earlier this year. Jones, who expressed her opposition to the facility, reiterated her stance in another letter dated July 2.
Jones said in April that the city had yet to be formally notified about the Department of Homeland Security’s acquisition of the warehouse and feared the facility “will further depress economic activity in a part of town that already struggles to attract economic development.”
Venturella said in last month’s response that the East Side facility will “abide by all applicable laws and regulations” and “encourages community stakeholders to raise any concerns” as it collaborates with the vendor, city authorities and utility service providers to review design plans and engineering solutions.
In her letter Thursday, Jones asked whether the facility went through a review process under the National Environmental Policy Act, which she said should have occurred before the Department of Homeland Security acquired the facility.
Jones also said she expects ICE to take the input into account before the implementation plan and schedule are completed, so that her “community’s concerns may be addressed in a meaningful way.”
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