BREAKING NEWS – EL PASO, Tx., February 3, 2026: As we reported, city council voted today to develop a plan of action to oppose any future development of another Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility.
Several residents spoke in support of the plan to limit a future ICE detention facility in El Paso during the public speaking period. The agenda item was taken up a little after two in the afternoon.
There were two motions made to make changes to the proposed measure. The first was the request to remove the water utility from any planning. This amendment was requested by Deanna Maldonado-Rocha. The water utility argued that “as a matter of policy” the water utility should be removed because they cannot withhold water to a federal facility. During the discussion it was pointed out that the Public Service Board (PSB) owned large parcels of land. The PSB argued that it cannot reject land sales to the federal government because ultimately the federal government can use eminent domain to acquire the land. The PSB governs the water utility. The PSB offered that they would offer the city council any information they need. Maldonado-Rocha said that “we need to be really careful…there is not a plan to build a facility in the city limits at this time.”
The water utility was removed after Renard Johnson broke the tie vote to remove the water utility. Voting to remove the utility were Alejandra Chávez, Maldonado-Rocha, and Ivan Niño. Josh Acevedo, Chris Canales and Lily Limón voted to keep the water utility in the proposed plan.
The second amendment was made by Acevedo. His motion added that the city council directs city staff to research and explore options to create a protocol to restrict ICE from entering any city facility without a judicial warrant, to explore a moratorium to use permitting to limit ICE facilities and create a report listing all points of cooperation between ICE and the City of El Paso. The motion called for the findings to be reported back to city council within 60 days.
Acevedo’s amendment was adopted unanimously.
The vote to approve the motion was made around 3:00 in the afternoon.
The motion was made by Limón and seconded by Canales. The motion passed unanimously with Art Fierro and Cynthia Boyer-Trejo were absent.
Today’s city council motion explores options to use its authority in land use to help keep a future ICE detention facility out of the city. Acevedo’s motion adds research to look to see how the city can keep ICE agents out of city facilities that do not have judicial warrants and provides the city council with a list of links between city officials and ICE.
The motion alone will not keep an ICE detention center out of El Paso but will provide support for other elected officials looking to also use their tools to keep an ICE detention facility out of El Paso.
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