SAN ANTONIO – UPDATE 10:30 A.M.: The City of San Antonio has filed a lawsuit over the immigration detention facility on the East Side.
In a news conference Tuesday, City Attorney Andy Segovia said the lawsuit was filed in federal court against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Tuesday morning.
Watch the full press conference below:
A majority of the San Antonio City Council has been critical of the planned 1,500-person processing facility, which U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has said could open early next year.
Segovia said the suit is to ensure compliance by DHS with the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act, NEPA.
Segovia said the city is requesting the federal court to do the following:
Vacate the purchase of the facility
Vacate the contract that they have issued to start the work in converting the warehouse into a detention facility
Halt all activity until DHS and ICE have fully complied with the requirements of NEPA
The city will also seek a temporary injunction to pause the project. If there are visible signs that work has started at the site, the city will request an emergency hearing to stop it.
“We have been very patient with the federal authorities, in particular DHS and ICE on this issue,” San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones said. “This lawsuit today is directly related to the federal government, DHS, and ICE in particular, failing to uphold their obligations to the people of San Antonio.”
Last week, City Council voted 9-2 to ask the city-owned utilities, San Antonio Water System and CPS Energy, as well as certain city departments, to assess the potential impacts of the facility.
ICE bought the 640,000 square-foot warehouse off Loop 410 for $66.1 million earlier this year.
In late August, it awarded a $17.3 million contract to GardaWorld Federal Services LLC to renovate the East Side warehouse into a processing and detention facility and provide wraparound services to operate it.
Federal contract records show the contract has since grown to $61.8 million.
Segovia said the city wrote to DHS and ICE five times beginning in February, most recently on Sept. 9, seeking information about the project. The agencies responded once, in June, promising to coordinate with the city, accept community input and share design and engineering reports before any work began.
The city said it has not heard from them since early this summer.
In a statement sent to KSAT Tuesday morning, DHS said the lawsuit is not about the environment and accused the city of trying to stop President Donald Trump “making America safe again.”
“Let’s be honest about this. This isn’t about the environment. It’s about trying to stop President Trump from making America safe again. The left didn’t care about the mountains of litter that illegal aliens dumped on ranches and riverbeds during Biden’s border crisis. They’re feigning concern now because they want those same illegal aliens to stay forever—and vote here as well.
“From day one, DHS has remained singularly focused on removing the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens from the United States and is always evaluating the best methods to do so. These heinous criminals, once arrested, should be removed at lightning speed, not housed on American soil at the taxpayer’s expense. DHS is moving swiftly to utilize EXISTING detention space with our state and county partners.”
DHS spokesperson
KSAT has also reached out to ICE and GardaWorld for comment.
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