{"id":160917,"date":"2026-02-12T02:59:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T02:59:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/160917\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T02:59:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T02:59:15","slug":"mayor-jones-pleads-with-san-antonios-federal-delegation-to-not-fund-new-ice-facility-on-east-side","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/160917\/","title":{"rendered":"Mayor Jones pleads with San Antonio\u2019s federal delegation to \u2018not fund\u2019 new ICE facility on East Side"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN ANTONIO \u2013 Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones asked the state\u2019s U.S. senators and five San Antonio-area U.S. representatives in a letter Wednesday to not funnel any money or resources to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement\u2019s (ICE)\u2019s recent purchase of an East Side warehouse<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Jones first revealed her plans to send the letter to the federal delegation in a Q&A with KSAT 12 anchors Myra Arthur and Ernie Zuniga<\/a> during KSAT\u2019s 6 O\u2019Clock News on Tuesday. <\/p>\n

The mayor addressed the East Side facility in the video player below. <\/p>\n

The Texas delegation representing the San Antonio and South Texas areas is comprised of U.S. Sens. John Cornyn (R) and Ted Cruz (R), as well as U.S. Reps. Greg Casar (D), Joaquin Castro (D), Henry Cuellar (D), Tony Gonzales (R) and Chip Roy (R). <\/p>\n

\u201cI respectfully request that you vote against any funding bill that would allocate resources for the proposed 640,000-square-foot facility reportedly acquired by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at 542 SE Loop 410 Access Rd, San Antonio, Texas,\u201d Jones\u2019 letter began. <\/p>\n

ICE officially confirmed the purchase of the facility to KSAT on Feb. 5<\/a>. The property was purchased for more than $66 million by the United States of America, according to documents released by the Bexar County Clerk\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

The buyer\u2019s address was listed as the ICE Headquarters in Washington, D.C., the documents said. <\/p>\n

The San Antonio site will function as a processing facility with up to 1,500 beds, rather than a large-scale detention center, according to reports from The Washington Post<\/a> and The Dallas Morning News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the letter, Jones called for \u201ctransparency\u201d regarding the \u201cproposed ICE facility.\u201d She said the mayor\u2019s office and city staff have not \u201creceived formal notification\u201d regarding the purchase.<\/p>\n

KSAT reached out to ICE on Wednesday afternoon regarding how the agency will use the facility and a timeline of when it would open. <\/p>\n

On Wednesday afternoon, an ICE spokesperson shared the same statement with KSAT from when the agency confirmed the facility purchase on Feb. 5.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese will not be warehouses \u2014 they will be very well-structured detention facilities meeting our regular detention standards,” an ICE spokesperson said, in part. The spokesperson also cited the \u201cOne Big Beautiful Bill,\u201d which the agency said would help it secure \u201cnew funding to expand detention space.\u201d <\/p>\n

In her letter, the mayor described a suggestion that the new ICE facility would be a \u201cjobs opportunity\u201d for the East Side as \u201cinsulting and inaccurate.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cI 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,\u201d Jones said, in part. \u201cSuch steps would actually help people.\u201d <\/p>\n

Cuellar, who is the U.S. representative serving the area where the new ICE facility is located, sent KSAT a statement Wednesday where he said he opposed the agency\u2019s purchase. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs Ranking Member of the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, I\u2019m opposed to this project and demand clear answers from ICE. If federal dollars are being used \u2013 particularly funds from the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB), which I voted against \u2013 there has to be full transparency and accountability to the public. In the meantime, I\u2019m pressing for a detailed briefing and reviewing every legislative and appropriations tool available in regards to this project. I don\u2019t believe this is useful to taxpayers\u2019 dollars and I do not support it.\u201d<\/p>\n

U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar<\/p>\n

Jones concluded her letter by saying the facility \u201cwould negatively affect\u201d the economy on the East Side. <\/p>\n

\u201cI welcome a conversation to discuss more strategic ways to enhance the economic development of our city,\u201d Jones said. \u201cTo be perfectly clear, we do not want this ICE facility in our community and ask that you please not fund it.\u201d <\/p>\n

More City Hall coverage on KSAT: <\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2013 Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones asked the state\u2019s U.S. senators and five San Antonio-area U.S. representatives…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160918,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3084,96,2112,1829,82,84,83,51314],"class_list":["post-160917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-city-hall","tag-east-side","tag-gina-ortiz-jones","tag-ice","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-we-follow-through"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}