EL PASO, Tx., February 2, 2026: As controversy over immigration enforcement and the tactics used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents across the nation continue to intensify, two city representatives have put a motion in tomorrow’s city council agenda to develop policies to “prevent the installation of any” immigration detention facilites in El Paso.
Tomorrow’s city council agenda, item 34, calls for the “discussion and action to direct the City Manager, in collaboration with the City Attorney, to develop a plan of action to prevent the installation of any Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facilities in the city.” It adds, “additionally, to collaborate with the County of El Paso and El Paso Water to support this measure.”
It was put on the agenda by city representative Lily Limón. Chris Canales signed on to Limón’s agenda item.
El Paso is not the First to Look at rejecting ICE Facilities
When news broke that ICE officials were considering repurposing a warehouse to house an ICE detention facility, Orlando city officials looked at ways to keep the facility out of the city. Orlando’s city attorney told the mayor and the city council that because of the Federal Supremacy Clause, the local government cannot regulate ICE facilities in the Orlando area. However, Orlando city officials will continue to look at what they can do to stop the proposed facility during their February 10 meeting.
A bill making its way through the New Mexico legislature is also looking at not only banning ICE facilities in New Mexico but banning local governments from working with the federal government to operate detention centers. The proposed bill also seeks to limit local law enforcement from enforcing immigration law.
Last month, Kansas City’s City Council passed a five-year moratorium banning the licensing or permitting of any detention facility that is not owned by the city. The moratorium essentially blocks anyone, except the city, from building or repurposing a detention facility to hold immigrants by ICE. Kansas is seemingly bypassing the Supremacy Clause by using building permitting to stop ICE detention centers in their city.
The Oklahoma City council last week listened to community members asking them to stop a planned ICE facility in the city. Oklahoma City officials are now looking at ways to get around the Federal Supremacy Clause to stop the proposed ICE facility.
Like Kansas, Oklahoma may use limiting building and occupancy permits to get past the Supremacy Clause.
According to El Paso’s agenda item’s supporting document, the agenda item was driven by “constituent concerns” over the potential ICE facility leading the two elected officials to explore measures to see about stopping it. The proposed measure looks to explore the city’s “legal authority, policy options, and land use or regulatory mechanisms that may be available to prevent” an ICE detention facility in El Paso.
It appears that Limón and Canales are looking at municipal regulations to bypass the Supremacy Clause to stop a potential ICE detention center. By adding the water utility, the council can consider limiting access to the city’s water supply to a keep the detention center out of the community.
We asked elected officials about the attempt to keep an ICE detention center out of El Paso. This is what they had to say.
Elected Officials Respond to Rumored ICE Facility in El Paso
Lily Limón told us in an email that she “placed the item on the agenda with co-signer Chris Canales because I learned an ICE facility could be placed in the county.” She added that “while I am a city representative and do not have authority over county land, I feel that the city and county can come together as a team to fight the placement of such a facility in our own backyard.” Limón went on to add that “the item is not designed to come up with a solution, but rather it calls for collaboration to be established between the city and the county.”
Limón added that she is “not aware of ICE considering placing a facility in the city, but with the passage of this item on the agenda, we will be ready prior to their decision if it were to happen.” She added that “this can send a clear message to ICE that no detention facility is welcome in our region.”
We asked Limón if she has had any contact with other elected officials in the area about the matter. She wrote to us that she has “had contact with Commissioner Iliana Holguin and Mayor Andy Renteria,” who are both “concerned about the installation of an ICE facility in our area,” she wrote. Limón added that “both [are] willing to meet with other mayors from the area and representatives to establish a united front.”
In an email, Chris Canales told us that “ICE has had a presence in El Paso, but so far not at the scale we have seen in some other cities.” He continued that “the escalations and deaths at the camp on Fort Bliss and the recent raids of construction job sites in nearby Horizon City have me worried that ICE may look to increase their physical presence within El Paso city limits.”
Canales added that it is “important for the City government to understand in advance what tools are available to us to push back against ICE and related entities should they seek to locate new facilities within the City of El Paso,” adding that he will “do whatever I can to keep El Pasoans safe from the severe and too often violent abuses of government power that we’re seeing elsewhere.”
Canales was referring to the rising controversies across the nation with the recent death of two U.S. citizens killed by ICE agents, and other controversial tactics being used by them for immigration enforcement.
He added that although he is “not aware of any specific plans for ICE to locate a detention facility within the El Paso city limits,” he has noted “lots of coverage of the large facility they are planning at a warehouse in El Paso County.” Canales wrote that the proposed ICE warehouse “seems to still be in somewhat of a state of flux, so if they have to pivot and relocate, it’s important to be prepared and be clear that we don’t want that in the City of El Paso.”
Canales was referring to a three-building warehouse facility in Socorro that is rumored to be under consideration for an ICE detention facility.
Picture from CBRE marketing brochure marketing a three-building warehouse facility rumored to be a proposed ICE facility.
In response to our question about whether he had spoken about the matter with other elected officials, Canales wrote that he “spoke in passing with a staff member from County Commissioner David Stout’s office about this item when we were both present at the same community meeting in Segundo Barrio, but I have not yet spoken with any of the Commissioners or the County Judge about it.” He added that “there was robust public comment and conversation about the topic of ICE and detention facilities at their Commissioners Court meeting last week.”
Canales wrote that “counties in Texas don’t have the same level of authority that home rule cities do to regulate land use, but it’s important that the City and County work together on important issues like this one,” because he hopes that his colleagues on council “will approve our proposal, and doing so will kick off a full collaboration with the County government on determining ways to prevent ICE from locating facilities in the region within our respective jurisdictions.”
County Commissioner Iliana Holguin told us in a written statement that she first heard about a rumored facility on January 20. After hearing about it, Holguin wrote that she “reached out to several other community leaders in an effort to start mobilizing against the construction of any new facility, including Socorro Mayor Rudy Cruz, Rep. Lily Limon and County Attorney Christina Sanchez.” She added that “I am convinced that only by working together at all levels of government will we be able to hopefully prevent the construction of yet another massive immigration detention facility in our area.”
The county commissioner wrote that she is “very supportive of Rep. Limon’s agenda item, and am committed to working with all of our governmental partners to obstruct the federal government’s plan in any way that we can.”
Holguin told us that “last Monday, we heard from over two hundred El Paso County residents during public comment in Commissioners Court, all of whom asked us to do whatever we could to stop the construction of the facility.”
She added that “while the County does not have permitting or zoning authority and cannot itself prohibit the construction of a federal facility, the County is committed to working with the City of Socorro and all affected areas to prevent the construction of more immigration detention facilities in our area.” She concluded with, “these facilities will strain our region’s already very strained natural resources, and the federal government should instead be investing these funds to meet the infrastructure needs of our local communities, not building additional detention facilities that the residents of El Paso do not want or support.”
El Paso already has an ICE detention center at Ft. Bliss. The ACLU has demanded that ICE close the detention center alleging systematic abuse, including sexual abuse, and inhumane conditions at the facility.
A second facility appears to be in the works on the east side according to Congresswoman Veronica Escobar’s January 20 press release. The location for the detention facility is rumored to be in Socorro, but ICE has not officially confirmed the location.
Cover photograph credit: Marketing picture of the development rumored to be the new ICE detention facility.
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