City Council debates a proposal to limit private detention centers after controversy over a new ICE facility, citing community harm and safety concerns.
SAN ANTONIO — With one council member absent, the final vote was eight affirmative and two negative on a proposal that could make it more difficult for some kinds of detention facilities to do business in San Antonio.
The vote came around noontime Thursday, after about two hours of discussion, including passionate pleas from several citizens.
The matter was brought to council after a recent controversial move by ICE to establish a facility on Southeast Loop 410.
District 5 representative Teri Castillo said “The federal government still has an opportunity to purchase and create detention centers. The initiative and the research that we’re doing now and directing staff is primarily around private detention centers.”
Castillo said no matter what action federal officials take, locals have a duty to act to protect citizens.
“We have a responsibility as city council to say, ‘Hey, how can we talk about zoning to prohibit private detention centers in our community?” Castillo said.
City Attorney Andy Segovia said “As has been reported, this is a new model.”
Segovia told council finding a way forward wouldn’t be fast or easy.
Segovia said “There is no warehouse that has actually been converted and operating.”
Hilda Santiago told the council “I am mother, a wife, a daughter, a social worker, a Christian and a long time San Antonio resident.”
Struggling to maintain her composure, she told a harrowing tale of the day her husband was swept up off the street and into a detention center. She said she wanted to convince council to do everything possible to prevent more ICE presence here.
Santiago said in January her husband was on his way to work. The reason given by a state trooper for the stop, Santiago said, was that “the registration sticker on his truck was too high.”
Turned over to ICE, she said her husband, who has no criminal record, was shipped to a detention facility in Pearsall where he stayed for days.
“When I found out I dropped to the ground and cried,” Santiago said. She said their small daughter was distraught, constantly asking for her father. It took almost four weeks and $10,000 in legal fees to secure his release, she said.
Antonio Diaz showed up with a sign to share that read “San Antonio Rejects Concentration Camps.”
Diaz told the council “They are already turning our police officers into ICE agents!”
“That just installs more fear into our communities,” Diaz said, adding he believes it is an idiotic and ridiculous course of action.
Pedro Ruiz promised that citizens would rise up to protest any additional facilities.
Minister Ricardo Jimenez Reyes said “In my work, I have worked with families whose lives were shattered overnight.” He asked for rule changes that would not accept suffering as normal.
Council discussed a two-tiered solution, a short term moratorium on new facilities and a longer term fix that would update the city’s unified development code with new restrictions.
“They are inflicting tremendous harm on our community,” District 2 representative Jalen McKee- Rodriguez said, adding “We need to establish the strictest guidelines we can.”
Phyllis Viagran from District 3 said “There are specific health and risk concerns and the locations they choose, if they insist on coming into an inner city population.”
Councilman Marc Whyte, who opposed the proposal, said “The UDC is being used to set immigration policy and that’s wrong.”
Even with an expedited process for approval, they say April 16th is the earliest the matter can return for a vote.