{"id":174594,"date":"2026-02-21T20:01:23","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T20:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/174594\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T20:01:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T20:01:23","slug":"community-concerns-around-east-side-ice-facility-illegal-dumping-top-of-mind-at-mayors-town-hall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/174594\/","title":{"rendered":"Community concerns around East Side ICE facility, illegal dumping top of mind at mayor\u2019s town hall"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN ANTONIO \u2013 Community concern about a forthcoming Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility on the East Side<\/a> largely dominated discussion at an East Side town hall this week.<\/p>\n

On Thursday evening, San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones and District 2 Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez hosted the forum.<\/p>\n

In a statement to KSAT confirming the purchase of the building, which appears to be a commercial warehouse, ICE said the building would be a \u201cvery well-structured\u201d detention facility.<\/p>\n

The property was purchased for over $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 building sits near residential neighborhoods and community spaces. Within a few miles are multiple schools, grocery stores, churches and other community hubs.<\/p>\n

Many District 2 residents leveled questions at the pair about why the city has not stepped in to stop the planned detention center.<\/p>\n

McKee-Rodriguez said the city\u2019s hands were tied, since federal buildings are not required to follow city zoning rules.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hate officials passing the buck just as much as everyone else. I was very frustrated when we all found out about this ice facility,\u201d McKee-Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n

The town hall comes a week after an onslaught City Council meeting earlier this month, in which council weighed several options<\/a> as to how to stop the facility. Though it remains unclear how much they can actually do.<\/p>\n

Ongoing illegal dumping continues to be an everyday issue for residents, and it was also up for discussion Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI personally have used the 311 app, (and) it works sometimes, it doesn\u2019t work sometimes,\u201d a resident at the town hall said. \u201cI just checked my app, there is a case of illegal dumping that was opened April of last year (and) it\u2019s still pending. So, what are we doing?\u201d<\/p>\n

A city spokesperson at the meeting said the city wants to identify illegal dumping hotspots and \u201cget to the root of the problem.\u201d The spokesperson encouraged residents to call or use the 311 app to report activity.<\/p>\n

In November 2025, KSAT reported on an East Side woman who, after reporting dozens of illegally dumped truck tires<\/a> in an alley behind her property to the city, was allegedly told by city staff that they were still her responsibility to clean up.<\/p>\n

However, after KSAT helped to remove some of the tires and a phone call with a spokesperson for the city\u2019s Development Services Department, the city cleared the alleyway.<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2013 Community concern about a forthcoming Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility on the East…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[20324,96,2112,1829,21157,82,84,83,51314],"class_list":["post-174594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-district-2","tag-east-side","tag-gina-ortiz-jones","tag-ice","tag-jalen-mckee-rodriguez","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\/174594","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=174594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}