San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones speaks during a town hall at the Central Library. Credit: Michael Karlis
San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones has asked Texas’ congressional delegation not to fund development of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center the agency plans to open on the city’s East Side.
In a letter to U.S. Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz along with U.S. Reps. Joaquin Castro, Henry Cuellar, Greg Casar, Tony Gonzales and Chip Roy, the mayor urged lawmakers to reject any funding bill that would include resources for the proposed lockup.
Jones’ request comes as Congress debates future funding for ICE, and a potential shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security looms. Democrats on Capitol Hill have demanded reforms for the agency in the face of immigration agents’ aggressive arrests, disregard for due process and violent confrontations with protesters.
The mayor also sent the letter days after ICE reportedly spent $66 million to buy the warehouse, one of the city’s largest industrial facilities, to process detained migrants. The facility wasn’t built for housing prisoners, so it would presumably need extensive upgrades.
“Some have suggested this proposed ICE facility is a jobs opportunity, and I think that is insulting and inaccurate,” Jones wrote. “I would offer a better way to increase jobs: eliminate the tariffs that have driven up costs in our community, and reverse the proposed cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP and SNAP as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Such steps would actually help people.”
The Trump administration’s plan to open new immigrant detention centers in San Antonio and other U.S. cities unfolds against rising public outrage over the president’s aggressive immigration crackdown and the shooting deaths of two U.S. citizens in Minnesota by federal agents.
Nearly 3 in 4 U.S. adults support making reforms to ICE as Congress negotiates future DHS funding, with 29% saying the agency should be abolished outright, according to a new NBC News Decision Desk Poll.
Sticking an ICE detention site on the San Antonio’s economically depressed East Side would further hurt the area’s chances of bringing in new jobs and building prosperity, Jones added in her letter.
“I welcome a conversation to discuss more strategic ways to enhance the economic development of our city,” Jones concluded. “To be perfectly clear, we do not want this ICE facility in our community and ask that you please not fund it.”
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