SAN ANTONIO — The San Antonio City Council will discuss a resolution regarding detention facilities in a meeting on Thursday.
The moratorium comes on the heels of a memo titled “Evaluation of Strategies to Protect All San Antonians,” sent last week by members Jalen McKee-Rodriguez, Edward Mungia, Teri Castillo and Ric Galvan. It also comes after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) purchased an industrial building on San Antonio’s East Side, according to the San Antonio Express-News.
In the memo, the four city council members requested an evaluation on a potential temporary hold for “the establishment of non-municipal detention facilities, including the approval of building permits, special use permits, zoning applications” and more.
The members also wanted a public meeting on whether such facilities follow federal laws, including environmental ones, and how federal legislation could be used to prevent or stop facility operations.
Regarding San Antonians’ safety, the memo requested the city look into public signage displaying resident and business owner rights, ICE-related harm prevention training for city staff and an economic report detailing migrant contributions to San Antonio and Bexar County.
Members also made an evaluation request on possibly requiring “disclosure of vendor participation in detention or immigration enforcement operations when contracting with the City.”
The memo closed with a call to hold federal law enforcement accountable and an acknowledgement that the City Attorney’s Office is already investigating some of the proposed strategies.