San Antonio ICE Detention Center Opponents Turn to Possible Legal Action

Opposition to San Antonio’s planned ICE detention center is entering a new phase as local leaders push the city and Bexar County to consider challenging the project in court.

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Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Calvert and Father Jimmy Drennan, pastor of St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church, are calling on local officials to examine possible legal claims involving environmental review, infrastructure, and whether residents have had an adequate opportunity to weigh in.

Their push comes as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) moves forward with plans to convert the warehouse at 542 S.E. Loop 410 into a detention and processing center. ICE has projected an average daily population of 1,000 to 1,500 people.

In August, ICE awarded GardaWorld Federal Services a $17.3 million contract to renovate the property. Now, opponents are looking beyond political pressure for another way to challenge a project the city has limited power to stop through local zoning laws.

Could Environmental Review Provide a Legal Opening?

Calvert told Texas Public Radio that city and county attorneys should examine whether ICE complied with the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, which requires federal agencies to evaluate the environmental effects of certain major federal actions.

“I think it’s very important that we at least slow this down and make sure that the processes happen,” Calvert told TPR. “It doesn’t guarantee that we can absolutely stop it.”

The question of environmental review has been hanging over the project for months.

In a recent interview with TPR, Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones said she had asked ICE about its environmental review, its approach to city permitting and opportunities for public feedback. She requested a response by September 30 and said the city would assess its options after reviewing whatever response it did, or did not, receive. At the time of writing this, we found no public confirmation that ICE supplied those details by the September 30 deadline.

“There just hasn’t been a lot of transparency, unfortunately, from DHS on this topic, despite our numerous requests for information,” Jones told TPR.

Questions Beyond Environmental Review

Local officials are also asking what turning a vacant warehouse into a facility housing more than 1,000 people could mean for infrastructure on the East and Southeast Sides.

In September, District 2 Councilmember Jalen McKee-Rodriguez requested independent assessments from the San Antonio Water System and CPS Energy examining the project’s potential water, wastewater, and electricity demands. The request also asks officials to consider possible effects on drainage, utility reliability, and customer rates.

SAWS told KSAT that water and sewer lines already serve the property but that the owner would be responsible for installing larger water lines if the facility requires them.

City Council records list McKee-Rodriguez’s request for an independent SAWS and CPS Energy assessment as CCR 2026-0035 and show it was taken up by the Governance Committee on September 16. The listing doesn’t say whether the assessments have been completed.

Those infrastructure questions could become increasingly important as opponents try to determine whether federal officials completed the assessments required before moving ahead with the conversion.

Opponents Are Taking Their Demands to the Streets

Calvert and Drennan are also organizing a march on Saturday, October 3, aimed at increasing pressure on city and county officials to consider a lawsuit.

Participants are scheduled to gather at S. J. Davis Middle School on East Houston Street at 8 a.m. before beginning the march toward the planned ICE facility at 9 a.m. CDT. 

“Part of what we’re trying to do on October 3rd is a march that really puts pressure on the district attorney, civil division, and the city attorney’s office to sue,” he told TPR.

Drennan said immigration enforcement is already affecting families at his East Side parish and described widespread fear among parents about what increased ICE activity could mean for their children.

“We have to remember in San Antonio that the very first people in that detention center will be people of this community,” Drennan said to TPR. “We’re going to see the people we sit next to in church, in school, in our workplaces, and have grown up with.”

What Happens Next?

A legal challenge is far from certain.

Because the federal government owns the Loop 410 property, San Antonio’s ability to use local zoning rules to prevent the facility from opening remains limited. Other communities have pursued environmental challenges against proposed ICE warehouse conversions, but those cases don’t establish that ICE violated federal law at the San Antonio site.

For now, the immediate question is what information ICE provides in response to local officials’ requests and whether city or county attorneys find grounds for further action.

After months of asking the federal government to reconsider the East Side facility, opponents are now pushing San Antonio and Bexar County to determine whether they have another option: challenging it in court.