In a raid on November 16, 2025, federal agents detained 143 people. We are learning at least one of the people detained was here lawfully.
SAN ANTONIO — In the early hours of Nov. 16, 2025, federal agents swarmed a property off San Pedro Avenue near Basse Road that housed food trucks and an after-hours spot.
A total of 143 people were taken into custody, including a Honduran-born man who was in the country legally after being granted asylum in 2021.
The raid stemmed from a drug investigation involving a suspected cocaine dealer. The FBI said 51 of the 143 people arrested were members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. Agents also said 25 of those arrested had criminal records.
However, an attorney representing one of those detained said her client did not fall into either category.
Attorney Hannah Eash-Gates said her client, who asked to remain anonymous, was taken into custody before he could tell agents he had legal documentation.
“He was in his car, just sitting there, when it was surrounded by federal agents,” Eash-Gates said. “Those agents broke all the windows in his car except for the windshield. They pulled him out, loaded him onto a bus or some sort of vehicle, put him in handcuffs and shackled his ankles, and took him to some processing facility.”
Eash-Gates said that at the processing facility, her client showed agents his driver’s license, Social Security card and work permit. She said agents took the documents and told him they were fake.
He was then transferred to the T. Don Hutto Detention Center near Austin.
On Nov. 20, Eash-Gates said she emailed the San Antonio field office to notify officials of her client’s legal status and demand his release. She said she included official documents proving he was granted asylum in 2021.
She said officials ignored her request.
“He was detained just under four weeks,” she said.
The man told KENS 5 over the phone that the experience was traumatic, saying the detention center felt more like a maximum-security prison.
He said all he wanted was to be home with his young children and their mother.
On Dec. 9, according to records obtained by KENS 5, a judge dismissed his deportation case, citing his asylum status.
When asked whether she believes her client would have been deported without legal representation, Eash-Gates said, “I think it’s likely that he would have been.”
She added that the government already had proof of his legal status.
“Unless an individual has the ability to make a legal argument and present those documents before a judge, it’s basically an unrepresented person against a trained government attorney,” she said.
The man said he remains traumatized by the experience. He said he came to the United States seeking a better life.
He added that he is still afraid he could be detained again.
“I don’t leave my house. I try to work from home because it scares me that I’ll go somewhere where they might do that to me again,” he said.
KENS 5 reached out to the Department of Homeland Security to ask how many of the 143 people taken into custody on Nov. 16 were deported and how many were in the country legally. As of Thursday night, the agency had not responded.